No Boundaries Participants Matt R and Abby S with Visual Comfort President Joe Higgins

Our No Boundaries team visited and toured the Visual Comfort Group Warehouse in Skokie in February.  The Warehouse Manager, Scott Christman, gave us a tour of their warehouse and the President, Joe Higgins, gave us a tour of the showroom. No Boundaries participant Abby, who works at Planet Access Company (PAC) Warehouse, wanted to learn how PAC and Visual Comfort Group Warehouse are the same and how they are different.

Below is what Abby found out:

Ann at work at PAC Warehouse

I was surprised at how big the lighting warehouse was. It is a lot bigger than the PAC Warehouse, but the ceilings are a lot higher at PAC than at the lighting warehouse. I learned that the Visual Comfort Group Warehouse employs about 600 people. The manager was not aware that any employees had disabilities.  Search Inc’s PAC Warehouse is a social enterprise that competitively employs 4 individuals with disabilities and provides paid work opportunities and vocational training to about 35 additional people with disabilities.

The lighting warehouse was very beautiful. They sell all sorts of light fixtures to businesses and to individuals. They sell indoor and outdoor lights; expensive and inexpensive lights; LED and environmentally friendly lights.  Most of the parts for the lighting warehouse fixtures come from China and Italy. At PAC we don’t sell things, but we store, package and ship items for lots of businesses, like Toad&Co and Princess Awesome.

Planet Access Warehouse’s David

Both warehouses have different departments, including a process and returns department. However, I don’t think PAC Warehouse has a customer service department like the Visual Comfort Group Warehouse. PAC is a fulfillment center so we don’t deal directly with customers.

At PAC, we manually tape up boxes. At the lighting warehouse there was a tape gun machine that self-tapes in a straight line across boxes.

I thought that the showroom at Visual Comfort Group Warehouse was very beautiful and very bright! I especially liked the crystal chandeliers. But I like working at PAC. It is clean, organized and roomy. I have a lot of friends there and I get a lot of support.