Green Companies

The day-after-Thanksgiving-shopping-mayhem known as Black Friday has officially come and gone, but the repercussions (or shall we say benefits) of all that purchasing will be felt for months. According to the 2009 holiday survey by Pricegrabber.com, 45 percent of consumers were planning to shop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with 80 percent planning to make a purchase on Black Friday and 66 percent on Cyber Monday. And I can vouch from a personal standpoint that it was crazy out there, people! I happened to be in Chicago on that fateful Friday, and let me just say, Michigan Avenue was nothing less than insanity. But given the struggling economy, that’s not a bad thing. In fact, the numbers were better than expected by retailers, who attracted shoppers with hard-to-turn-down sales. (Again, I can vouch for this from a personal perspective. There must have been something in the water at Macy’s because those sales ladies were downright hypnotic with their powers of persuasion…but I digress.)

LEDs were no exception this season; more shoppers than ever purchased decorative holiday LED lights. That’s a great thing for our planet and our nation, since the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that if every household switched to using LED holiday lights, the country would save approximately $410 million in electricity costs. While the recession is still affecting most Americans, that didn’t stop them from spending a little extra for LED lights. While a string of incandescent lights costs about $2 and a similar string of LED lights costs $5-$15, the LED lights will last more than 20,000 hours (that’s up to 40 holiday seasons!), are less likely to break and remain cool to the touch, so they’re safe for kids and to use on that dried up Christmas tree! LEDs use 70 percent less energy than incandescent lights and they contain no mercury like CFLs do.

In fact, due to the increasing popularity of LED lights, IKEA plans on phasing out incandescent lights over the next five years. That’s a big statement from a huge retailer, attesting to the popularity and staying power of LEDs. What can we say, we told you so?