End of an Era: Creative Lighting Closes Down, Inventory Sold at Auction
By Linda Longo
Creative Lighting, the renowned Minnesota lighting showroom, has closed down after nearly 100 years in business. Long-considered to be ahead of the curve in the areas of online shopping and the importance of visual merchandising, Creative Lighting was founded in 1926 and was owned and operated by the Minsberg family for three generations. It was within Creative Lighting that Bellacor was created in 2000 as one of the first lighting etailers in the country. Bellacor’s success and dominance in the ecommerce space led to the decision to spin it off as an independent company with a separate management board.
In 2022, an agreement was made to sell Creative Lighting to Bellacor and Michael Minsberg, who was President, exited the business (his other brothers had retired earlier). Bellacor executives immediately announced that they would be launching a new business strategy — however, just 18 months later, Bellacor declared bankruptcy in May 2024. Less than three weeks ago, we reported that lighting retailer Capitol Lighting has acquired the Bellacor brand and digital properties.
This week, Grafe Auctions is handling the liquidation of Creative Lighting’s inventory via auction. A public preview of the items was held yesterday, September 16, giving customers the opportunity to see the offerings in person prior to bidding. The auction starts today, September 17, at 10 a.m. and will continue until all items in the auction have gone through the bidding process. For full auction details, click here
These are tough times for family-run businesses of all kinds, but it seems especially difficult for those in the decorative lighting showroom sector as well as electrical supply. While Home Depot and Lowe’s recently lowered their respective sales expectations for the year due to the noticeable reduction in consumer spending, they are better positioned to weather the downturn since they are large, publicly traded companies with considerable resources.
In all cases, higher interest rates and inflation have caused existing homeowners to hit pause when it comes to planning significant renovations such as upgrading their kitchens and baths, plus it has forced builders to squeeze those lighting budgets even tighter for new home buyers.
Electrical supply houses are also facing challenges. Several regionally prominent, family-owned electrical supply businesses have been acquired by larger electrical supply companies throughout the country. Less than two weeks ago, our sister publication Electrical Trends noted a surge of acquisitions on the electrical supply side as well as between lighting agencies.
Economists predict a smoother year ahead after Q2 or Q3 (depending on who you listen to), but for many of these family-run or small independent businesses in the lighting and electrical field, that may be too late.
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