The New Retail Landscape Part 2

In my last article, I elaborated on how our new economic nmarket will actually be a good thing for the smaller nretailer and consumer of the long run. We'll see thesenbenefits around 2010. That means that we need to take naction so that we can survive through the next 16 months.

In a moment, I'll give you a handful of ideas on how to cutnyour energy costs. I recently predicted the downtu
of thenU.S. dollar and explained why speculators needed to buy U.S.ndollars to pay off their bad margins. The dollar is nactually falling faster than even I predicted! My othernprediction was that in spite of a $2.20 gallon of gas by nthen end of the year, energy costs will skyrocket in 2009.
Oil will go way up in a recession and not as a result ofnsupply and demand. The bankers who scooped all thosenbuckets of money from the American Taxpayer to supposedlynreinvest and stimulate the economy had done just as I hadnpredicted. They're NOT creating jobs or lending out muchnmoney. They say credit is tight. So where is the $1.4ntrillion dollars going? Foreign investments, primarilynin oil, that will drive the prices up to levels that willnboggle the mind in 2009. If you think it can't happen, itnalready has. Earlier this year, when oil hit $140 a barrelnand more ( and U.S. gas was almost $4 a gallon...), nit wasn't driven my supply and demand.
Speculators artificially drove the price up, and they'llndo it again with the money they were supposed to plownback into the U.S. economy. The government is alreadyngrumbling about how the banks have not kept their wordnand have not used the funds to benefit the economy, nbut are making investments out of the USA to their nbenefit and self interest.

Now you know why in simple terms, how oil will go backnto $140 a barrel and actually much higher in 2009.

The smaller retailer needs to take steps now in order tonreduce energy costs. Here are a number of things you canndo, that can cut your energy costs by as much as 30 npercent. The higher energy costs go, the more you cannsave.

1) Adjust heating down to 67 or 68 degrees and air nconditioning to 78 in the summer. Every degree eithe
in heating or air condtioning can reduce your costs bynas much as 5%, depending on weather conditions. Employeesnand customers won't even feel the difference. Overheatingnor overcooling costs a fortune.

2) Replace lighting with Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbsn(CFL's). These units are far more efficient and direct nmuch more of the energy they consume into actual lightninstead of heat. In the summer, expensive air conditioningnwill work less. You'll save energy on lighting as well asncooling. Recently, studies have discovered that replacingnincandescent bulbs in enclosed housings tends to burn out
CFL's faster than their expected life term. It's best tonuse these in open fixtures where their small amount of heatncan dissipate.

3) Unplug all parastic loads in your store. Go through thenpremises and unplug that TV and DVD player in the staff roomnunless you're using it. Even though they're off, they willnconsumer about a hundred watts apiece day in and day out, 24nhours a day. Do you have an extra desk top computer runningnin the manager's office? It's drawing a minimum of 500 wattsnevery hour, likely more with the printer plugged in and on nas well. These parasitic loads can cost hundreds of dollars na year.

At 16 cents a kilowatt hour (This rate will double soon),nthe desktop computer and its peripherals is costing you nabout $2 a day in hydro. That's 16 cents times (500/1000) ntimes 24 hours in a day. Running a computer like that is nabout $730 a year in hydro.

4) Reduce your water heater to 120 to 130 degrees. Most nstores have a water heater for a washroom for employees andncustomers. Most water heaters are set to 160 degrees andnthen forgotten. Unless you run a restaurant and need thatntemperature for washing dishes, 120 degrees will save you a nbundle and is warm enough for washing hands and other nthings. While you're at it, put in a low flush toilet.
You're paying a fortune for water and that will be alsongoing up soon as well.

5) Replace store lighting with energy efficient fluorescentntubes. Ask your electrician (while he's turning down your nwater heater) about the most efficient lighting units for nyour store signs. Most are illuminated with 40 watt tubes, nthat are largely replaced now with more energy efficient
32 watt units. That's 20% less in consumption.

6) Examine your vehicular patterns. Do you have a van fornstock deliveries to stores or between stores? Can you nconsolidate shipments and reduce the frequency of trips?

As we enter these challenging times, retailers can savencosts and enhance profits through more efficient and nfrugal use of energy without compromising the ncustomer experience.

TAKE ACTION TODAYn1) Review this list of tactics with your team and get nstarted on reducing one of your major expenses. Everynbit you reduce as energy costs go up will enhance yournprofits during these challenging times.

2) Ask your team for ideas on how to reduce energy as well!
HANG IN THERE!