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Grocery and Convenience Stores
Tight margins and strong competition have caused many store managers to become increasingly creative with marketing strategies to retain customers and increase their customer base. Another, simpler method to improve the bottom line is to reduce costs - specifically, energy costs. Assuming the industry margin averages approximately 2.5%, then $250 a week in energy savings is equivalent to selling $10,000 per week of additional groceries!

The Focus on Energy program has targeted supermarkets and convenience stores to offer assistance with energy efficiency projects. Energy is the supermarket industry's number one operating cost next to shelf stock. Refrigeration comprises a large percentage of that cost. In fact, energy used to drive refrigeration systems represents between 7-10% of the entire U.S. electrical load.

A store owner often focuses on the refrigeration systems reliability and up-front cost, not realizing the long-term energy consequences of low-cost design. As a result, there are several opportunities to improve supermarket and convenience store refrigeration efficiency.

Refrigeration represents over 60% of the energy usage of each store. Wisconsin supermarkets use between $1.00 and $2.30 per square foot, per year. Convenience stores, although smaller in square footage, have a significant annual refrigeration load per square foot-between $0.70 to $1.25.

The Focus on Energy program can assist in identification and implementation of energy efficiency opportunities. Some are no cost or low cost, and others require additional up-front capital. Many opportunities result in a 1-4 year payback or return on investment. Click on one of the links below to learn more.
     Energy Efficient Grocery Store

Take this virtual tour to identify and learn about energy-saving opportunities in your store!

How Focus on Energy Can Help You
Focus on Energy is committed to assisting grocery and convenience stores in controlling their energy costs. Energy costs account for a growing percentage of operating costs. Therefore, energy management in the grocery and convenience industry is both a challenge and an opportunity. The Focus on Energy program can help meet this challenge by assisting in the identification and implementation of energy efficiency improvement opportunities.

Focus on Energy can assist your grocery/convenience facility by:

• Collecting and evaluating energy usage
• Financial assistance with energy efficiency project implementation
• Energy efficiency project feasibility analysis
• Helping develop a Practical Energy Management program
• Contact Focus on Energy today at 1-800-762-7077!