Sunlan Lighting

I have walked by Sunlan many times when window shopping and always wondered what it’s like inside. Well, now I know. A huge selection of almost any kind of bulb you can think of at very excellent prices. That’s not even the best. The two owners, more like curators, have encyclopedic knowledge of their bulbs, which I would guess total more than a million total bulbs (thousands of styles). They are very happy to discuss your specific bulb need and make recommendations. When I realized the bulbs I purchased didn’t work, they helped me get the right bulbs and processed the return as quickly as the purchase. I’m not going to bother shopping for bulbs online or anywhere else from now on.

Who knew one could spend 30 minutes in a tiny store that sells just light bulbs? This place is awesome!!! but definitely NOT dog friendly. Leave your pooch outside if you want to venture in. All sorts of interesting lighting options, with your standard lightbulb sizes to edison type lightbulbs to even neon lighting.

His eclectic lighting store is amazing and the staff are totally friendly, knowledgable, and helpful. Kay at the front desk is amazing and the guys at the back counter went the extra mile trying to diagnose the problem with my light. There are so many wacky bulbs & all things related to lights here that this is the type of store I hope will be in business forever! I’m so happy this is in my neighborhood — I will be back for mere strolling of the aisles!

Super-​knowledgable and welcoming staff, and the largest selection of Edison bulbs, and even LED Edison bulbs!, I’ve ever seen.

I stopped by here bc of the high reviews. I’m from So Cal and the pictures look pretty cool.
They have lots of unique light bulb. Like really cool one you may not find at home. Ancient knces to hippy cheesy ones your parents would get. Lol.
I didn’t get any since I’m flying home and can’t pack this fragile item. But they are off a strip that is worth checking out.
The staff are friendly and they approached us and showed us a few cool bulbs. They are pricey overall. But since you can’t really find a store elsewhere you have to be?

OK. I know the owner can be grumpy, BUT when it really matters, she is a very kind person who will do whatever she can to be helpful. Not only does she have every imaginable light bulb, but she has an incredible amount of knowledge about all of them, and lighting in general.
This place is often busy, and that is when it is harder to get the great service you get when it is not. The bottom line is, these folks are honest and helpful, and incredibly knowldegeable.
My most recent experience was the one that pushed me to write this review. I had purchased a number of expensive bulbs for a fixture at home that turned out to be no good anymore. I could not get back in to the store withing their 15 day return window. When I finally made it back in a month later and told the owner the story, she was very kind and immediately offered to return my money, with no hesitation. She then gave me some great advice to keep in mind when going to replace the fixture.
We can all be grumpy and it is too bad that sometimes the owner directs this at her customers. However, she is a good hearted person, and way worth supporting. I am so happy to be able to support this local, Portland business!

Yes, they have a lot of lightbulbs.
Yes, it looks like a lot of these reviews are from employees or others close to the business.
I used to think this place was all that — until my last visit.
I simply wanted to purchase 20 of a certain type of bulb. They were marked at $ 2.50 each. I asked the woman who is planted in the front of the store if she would be able to give me a break if I bought so many. Her response floored me. «You’ll get a little off if you buy a whole box (25 bulbs) — as our prices are already so low».
So without looking up the discount, she sends me back to get one of her people to get me a box. But I still would like to know what discount they are giving for an entire box.
She is the keeper of the keys so to speak, so it’s back up to find out what the discount is for an entire box. At this point, I am done. It is SO cramped in this tiny store, and impatient annoying Portland people were demanding to be helped — I couldn’t take it anymore and just left.
A friend asked what the discount was — 10 cents off a bulb — so a discount of $ 2.50 off of a box that would normally be $ 62.50. Really Sunlan? You need to make $ 30+ off a box of light bulbs? (I contacted the manufacturer and was quoted the wholesale price — $ 1.11)
Their prices on anything LED is ASTRONOMICAL — check it out in the store, and then just buy online. They want $ 70 for LED fluorescent replacements that are about $ 38 online.
I will never darken the door of that place again. Beware the troll!

Sunlan is Portland’s and the country’s supplier of light bulbs.
The light bulb was invented by Thomas Edison. it displaced all forms of fire, candles, oil lamps and natural gas lamps. You would think that bulbs are generic. They are not, and there are hundreds of formats standardized by tens of standards groups, and that is just in residential and commercial bulbs.
I needed a halogen bulb for a Flos desk lamp. We all want efficiency, but replacing fixtures, switches and sockets takes time. Each lighting technology has a different color temperature and color rendering index. What’s a color rendering index? it’s measure of how close a lighting source comes to natural light, like sunlight. The higher the color rendering index the better. Halogen is a great solution between inefficient standard bulbs and bluish-​colored LED and fluorescents, still often lacking in color rendering.
Sunlan had very solid and customer-​oriented in person and on phone service. They work on a first come first served queue pattern — so there may be a wait for your stellar customer focused experience. They didn’t have my bulb, but «we should have those, so we’ll order some».
Sunlan is Portland’s best source for unusual light bulbs you can’t find in your usual spots.

The younger male clerk was helpful enough. The older female at the register was much less so. I pointed out that the price she was charging for the light bulb I was buying was $ 2.00 more than the price listed at the display. Instead of an apology and a price check I got a dismissive response: «The price in the computer is the price.» There are other lighting stores in Portland.

Kay and Dennis are Portland famous. I love this store, may it last forever!

Great store with the best selection of light bulbs, functional and specialty, that I’ve seen in this city. What impressed me is that the prices were lower than those I’ve found online, making it a great deal as well.
Some people on here note that they dislike the owner, who I found to be a really awesome character, especially for the N Mississippi area.

Just visited Sunlan lighting with a decorating client. The inventory in this store is truly remarkable. This place has pretty much every type of light bulb you can imagine, plus quite a few that I guarantee will surprise you.
Find specialty bulbs, such as ultra-​cool steampunky edison-​style creations, the latest halogen and led designs, and all the really odd replacement bulbs you couldn’t possibly find at a Home Depot. This is also a good place to buy light bulbs by the case at reasonable prices. And, given the changing laws which will make many incandescent bulbs inaccessible in short order, you really might want to consider stocking up.
The staff was very friendly, patient, and informative. The owner is a hoot – a unique personality with a great sense of humor. Because she’s outspoken and a true individual you’ll either love her or find her difficult (as some Unilocal reviewers have). I loved her. I’m taking off one star only because the store has only one register.
The store is well staffed, but once you’ve got what you want you may stand in line for awhile. That’s because the owner is at the register and sometimes has to answer the historic and truly esoteric questions that the other (well educated) staff can’t handle. Things might move more quickly if she was at an information desk and a staff member handled the register, but I’m sure she’s got excellent reasons for doing it the way that she does.

This is the Powell’s of light bulbs. The selection of bulbs is nothing short of amazing, and they have a modest assortment of lamp parts as well if you’re building something (although Wink’s Hardware is a bit more comprehensive in this regard). Owner Kay Newell is not one to suffer fools gladly, but if you have a legitimate question, she’s quite helpful, and if you’re lucky she may just dispense a bit of arcane wisdom. She’s spent the past twenty-​odd years becoming a guru of lighting, and as others have noted, she’s something of a «character»… Sunlan has definitely earned its place on my «Why I live in Portland» list.

a huge and vase lighting store — It was recommended to me on our trip to visit this lighting store (along with walking mississippi ave!). It was fun to walk in and around and look are the literally thousands of lights they have. We picked up some edison bulbs (they have over 10 kinds of just those!). The staff was friendly and loves to talk bulbs! Definitely worth a visit even if you’re not looking for lights!

This has to be the nicest and perhaps most complete lightbulb store on the planet. I found some great shape, sizes and colors of bulbs today in a variety of wattage levels. Also I got a wonderful color changing fiberoptic night light and spotted other very unusual bulbs. Suffice it to say that I had to get a special container to transport all the bulbs I bought back to my hometown on a plane tomorrow. If you are looking for a hard to find bulb, or just appreciate these wonderful things that are going to soon become extinct, you must check this place out. Kay, the owner is very knowledgeable and helpful.

Really cool store, they Know what they are selling. Very friendly and helpful!

Sunlan Lighting is quintessential Portland. It’s right up there with Voodoo Donuts, Hippo Hardware, Music Millennium. Okay, it’s not a Powell’s but… They’ve been there for 22 years, and ALL they do is lightbulbs. Have you EVER seen a lightbulb store anywhere but Portland?
It’s such a fun and funky store — worth going to just to stand in front of the windows and stare at the displays. Once inside, there are options you’ve never thought about. It kind of makes you want to go home, and redecorate, just so you can experiment with cool lighting and light bulbs!

My relationship with this place has run the gamut. At first, I was horrified by its presence-«How can this store stay in business,» I thought. Then I moved into the neighborhood and on subsequent walks, warmed up to the store.
It’s their amazing window displays that did it for me. Every month, some new, quirky collection is displayed for all to see. It may be an impressive Star Wars LEGO collection or water guns or vinyl and stuffed geese wearing costumes — yes, it’s that quirky.
One day, though, I finally decided to step foot in here in an attempt to work on a lamp project I’ve been working on and have discovered that first, this place is huge. Second, it is filled from top to bottom with more light bulbs and lamp parts than I’m sure most people have ever imagined. Third, the people are/​were super helpful and the owner is a character. She’s genuine, though, and gets my full support. I’ve been here three times now within the past week and have looked forward to it every time.
One last thing, despite all the stuff, this place does have order to it. Everything is neatly compartmentalized and takes little to no time for the staff to locate. Definitely check this place out. You may not ever find another store like it.

Three stars for inventory. They have everything
Minus one star for service. We went to get some advice about a lightbox, since we’ve been feeling a bit down with the rainy days. We stood there for awhile, were ignored, asked for help, were ignored, then were interrupted when we finally got help so the lady could answer the phone, ring up other people, have conversations, whatever. We never got our questions answered and we left. I know she’s supposed to be some kind of local character, renowned for her grouchiness and personality, but I thought she was unfriendly and unhelpful. We were ready to spend money and she lost the sale.
If I need an odd or interesting light bulb I would go there, but only if I were ready and able to help myself. The service there sucks and quirky isn’t always admirable, especially when I really do need my questions answered.

You know that thing you have to do, when a weird lightbulb in some track light or fancy lamp blows out in your house? That thing, where you take the stupid bulb to the Fred Meyer and try to match it up and end up getting the wrong wattage or something and have to go BACK to the Fred Meyer and stand in the returns line to get your $ 6 back? So you then go to your local TruValue Hardware, where you stare really hard at all the lightbulbs they have on the shelf, trying to find the one you need, and the dude who works there just scratches his head and says, «man, I really thought we had that one in stock…» So you THEN have to face the fact that you’ll probably need to drive to The Home Depot, where you actually WILL find your lightbulb, but only after driving to Vancouver, parking a mile from the door, wasting 15 minutes trying to find someone to help you, and another 20 standing in line?
Yeah, don’t do that anymore. Just go to Mississippi Avenue and see the Lightbulb Lady. It’s not an intimidating process at all. Show her the burnt-​out bulb you’re attempting to replace. She’ll then point you to some guy working in the back room, who you’ll show the bulb to again. He’ll then give you a replacement bulb. You’ll pay a price equivalent to the Depot, your small child will get a pat on the head and a lollipop, and you’ll be out of there in under five minutes.
Plus, as you would expect, The Lightbulb Lady is a character. Check the place out next time you’re facing a potential bulb replacement nightmare and thank me later.