Via my UK-based Linked-In colleagues: A great article/recap in Lux Magazine of a presentation by Sainsbury’s Mark Hawker, Head of Engineering.  Sainsbury is a large grocery retailer in the UK; the article briefly mentions that they’ve opened a 100% LED illuminated store (picture above).

Half of the lighting suppliers who contact him ‘don’t understand their products’, Sainsbury’s head of engineering Mark Hawker told the Retail Lighting and Energy Conference yesterday.

Hawker says he is contacted by about two or three new lighting suppliers each month, but that half don’t properly understand what they are selling.

‘When we interview suppliers, 50 per cent don’t understand their product, or their business case is over-inflated or just plain wrong,” he told 200 retail and lighting professionals the London event.

‘In some cases, it’s all of the above.’

Hawker stressed the importance of checking the supply chain for where equipment is coming from and the quality control behind it . ‘Check their business case,’ he said. ‘Don’t take it as gospel. Ask yourself, will this company be around as long as the warranty?’

So which half are you in?  And don’t forget that whole human optimism bias in your judgement…