Real Goods reels in mall customers

Real Goods Solar opens a mall kiosk to reach out to residential customersIn addition to fashion, body lotion, lingerie and Orange Julius, mall shoppers in Clovis, Calif. can now count solar panels among the items they can buy a stone’s throw from where Santa sits in the winter. Real Goods Solar opened a kiosk at the Sierra Vista Mall in May.

In an industry where many businesses are focused on big fish – corporate clients and massive power purchase agreements for large utility-scale and complicated commercial projects – Real Goods has a laser focus on the residential solar market. The company aims to take the mystique out of solar for the consumer public, said Real Goods spokeswoman Cheryl Hansen-Abshere. “The kiosk gives us an opportunity to talk to people one on one and introduce them to solar,” Hansen-Abshere said.

The California mall kiosk is just down the road from the Real Goods retail store in Fresno where people can see almost all of Real Goods’ offerings and learn about solar installation. The idea behind creating retail locations where the public can come in and see and touch the panels is to make solar more accessible and let people know how it works. “The mall kiosk is more about outreach and offering some solar education,” Hansen-Abshere said.

In addition to educating kiosk visitors about how solar works and how it can be installed on their homes, the kiosk operators offer education on energy conservation and sustainable living. “There’s a big skylight in the mall and the kiosk is right under it,” Hansen-Abshere said. “ That’s nice because we can do some demonstrations”

solar kiosk

She said the kiosk is filled with fun solar toys and demonstration tools as well as testimonial videos from happy customers and informational literature. Real Goods has been around since 1978 and has a strong focus on customer sevice, Hansen-Abshere said.

photo courtesy of the Fresno Bee