Clean floors, 24/7. (Equipment & Design).

The No. 1 thing shoppers want from their supermarkets -- proven once again in PG's latest Annual Industry Report -- is a clean and safe environment. One of the most all-encompassing ways for operators to communicate that feelings is with clean and shiny floors, yet that is more and more difficult to accomplish as store hours increase. Floor maintenance is usually best-achieved by night crews, whose loud and smelly burnishers can be operated without sending shoppers packing. But what about a store open 24 hours a day?

Johnson Wax Professional and Tennant Company have joined forces to offer retailers of the 24/7 generation a solution it calls NexGen, a quiet, odor-free, and less labor-intensive floor care system that can be operated during store hours. Run on batteries instead of propane, like conventional burnishers, NexGen can be operated by only one employee and emits a low, unobtrusive hum as it does its work.

"NexGen eliminates the need for a dust mop, an auto-scrubber, and a burnishing machine," says the joint venture's president Victor Thomas. "It can transform an operator into an artisan after just minutes of training."

To learn more about the system, visit NexGen's Web site, www.nexgenfloorcaresolutions.com.