 | Bob Crager of Lewis Street Glass is a 26 year veteran in the glass business. Lewis Street Glass is a leading Wichita Glass company, serving the entire Wichita/Sedgwick County area since 1919. They do anything and everything having to do with glass, both residential and commercial. They also do Auto glass. They are located at 743 South Market, facing Kellogg on the South, and you can reach them by phone at (316) 263-8259. You can email Bob Crager at bcrager@lewisstreetglass.com |
Glass
2009-02-01 11:16:00
Glass benefiting customers
Answer: You didn’t say what kind of business building you’re referring to in your question, so let me just address your question in several different arenas. First of all, if you’re running a business that is retail in nature, where you have lots of “walk in” traffic, I would have to say that you probably cannot overdo what you do with glass. There’s nothing physically or architecturally that I know of that can compete with beautiful glass for allowing great visual access to your products or services. For display purposes, having the option of putting your product line right out front for potential customers to be able to see for themselves has an amazing impact on their buying decisions. Just the ability to get their attention by seeing what you are doing for a living is powerful stuff! And with all of the glass products that are available today and designed to prevent heat gain and loss, sunlight control, and many different shades of tint or color, you just cannot believe how much of a competitive advantage you can have over the competitor who has decided to stay back in the 50’s with his business exposure. Also, you’ll be happy to know that there are many types of glass panels produced today that address any security concerns you might have for your business operation.
Your concern with the high cost of energy is a point well taken, and I’ll address that for you. In a properly designed and installed glass application as the front of your business, you will enjoy many more positives than you will negatives. There are many different glass products available that will nearly eliminate any measurable heat gain or loss for your business via the glass. The direction your business faces can have some effect on that statement, as direct sunlight on any surface over a long period of time can saturate your installation and make somewhat of a difference, but most folks I know who have re-designed their business entrance utilizing lots of glass would never go back to the closed in dark spaces they had before. There are also many different ways to keep direct sunlight from your glass, if that is desirable. A good full service glass dealer can address all of these issues for you prior to you making a final decision on the project.
If your business is an office facility, and you make glass an important part of your office building, you will also be pleased by another, often overlooked side benefit of lots of glass. That is the improvement in the attitudes of your employees, when they’re able to enjoy the natural daylight inside their offices, rather than just sitting and working in artificial light conditions. The difference is dramatic in many ways!
So, to summarize, if the display of your products or services directly to the public could make a difference to your consumers, then I would say that a decision to get a re-design plan started today might make some sense. If higher production levels and higher spirits from a staff of office employees would be of benefit to you and your operation, then I would say that you might just want to get that project started right now today.
On the other hand, if sitting inside a closed-in building, using lots more energy burning all those lights while every day goes passing by, and the advantages I mentioned here are not really that important to you or your people, then it will probably make more sense to just continue with the status quo. I’ll leave that decision in your capable hands. More next month…
