The Beginning
In 1955 L.A. McBride Sr. opened a lighting store at 2300 N. Arkansas. From the first day Kansas Lighting was open for business, working part-time in the warehouse while attending school was a young man named Robert Kretchmar. Wichita's first total lighting showroom, Kansas Lighting grew quickly, moving to 1502 E. Central in 1959. Just five years later, that same warehouse worker/college student purchased the company along with his wife Marlys. In 1965 the Kretchmars purchased land further east on Central and built a 5,000-sq. ft. structure, complete with a spacious showroom and an all-important full basement for their convenient, on-site warehouse. Little did Bob and Marlys know that just 10 years later their warehouse needs would grow tenfold, demanding a much-needed 50,000 sq. ft. warehouse in north Wichita by 1975. As their customer base grew, Bob and Marlys knew a west Wichita store was in order. So in 1980 Kansas Lighting opened a second showroom at Kellogg and Hoover, soon to be followed by yet another west-side expansion: a permanent showroom on west Central in 1985. A family-owned business, sons Randy, Marc, and Kent have followed in their parents' footsteps, each helping in the warehouse as children and then joining the company full time upon college graduation to continue the tradition of stellar product quality and five-star customer service.
Kansas Lighting Today
Much has changed since those humble beginnings on north Arkansas. Today, Kansas Lighting's team of Certified Lighting Consultants (CLC) partner with you directly to bring your vision to life. Providing experience and imagination to your ideas, one of our four American Lighting Association-certified consultants will create a lighting solution as beautiful as it is affordable, bringing dramatic illumination and warmth into your home. We are lighting experts. You simply won't find more knowledge and passion than our select group of professionals. So while you can get lost in those “lighting departments” at the big-box department stores, at Kansas Lighting, that's all we do. Though we've worked with many memorable clients, from Pizza Hut to Jim Baker's PTL in North Carolina to a celebrities' New York City apartment, we approach each opportunity on an individual, consultative basis. Looking to upgrade or enhance interior lighting? Interested in landscape and decorative lighting? Our experts are ready to bring your ideas to light.
