5.7 Super/hypermarket

Transcription

1 5.7 Super/hypermarket Techniques General The purpose of a super/hypermarket lighting scheme is to make the store as appealing as possible to customers. It also needs to satisfy more down-to-earth requirements such as facilitating orientation or to attract customer attention to special displays or points of interests. Luminaires have to be chosen in order to underline and reinforce the individual character of the shop brand or chain of stores. Colour appearance of the light determines the overall ambience but colour rendering characteristics have a direct impact on ensuring that the objects are shown to their best advantage. The fundamental requirements for shop lighting could be as follows: Creating atmosphere: the way goods are presented and lit, as well as the general atmosphere, can positively influence a customer. Creating interest: using accent lighting to create areas that make a customer curious and wanting to see more. Visual guidance: the lighting must help the customer navigate around the shop. Flexibility: marketing trends and initiatives change frequently and in order to influence customers into rediscovering a shop it should be possible to easily adapt the lighting to new requirements. Lighting should allow consumers to examine the merchandise and should help complete the sale. General lighting Main objective is to provide a background ambience and to give light for guidance, especially in the case of frequent modifications to the store layout or promotions. As well as good horizontal light levels vertical light levels are important as shop goods tend to be held in vertical shelving units As this is background store lighting a high uniformity is required Luminaires should be placed perpendicular to shelving in order to facilitate any reorganisation of the shelving and the possibility of variable spacing of shelving due to different types of goods being sold in different areas. 78 Applications and Techniques

2 Accent lighting By locally increasing or decreasing the quantity of light it is possible to create variation in shadows and brightness. The aim of this is to give a maximum expression to merchandise, enhancing form, texture and colour in contrast with the surroundings. Ideally this should optimise the relationship between space, product and customer in order to enhance the prospects of a sale. Accent lighting should be at least 3x brighter than the surround to be noticeable or 5x brighter to be meaningful. Focal-point lighting, which highlights a specific central display with feature merchandise, should be 10x brighter than the surround and generally uses spotlighting Display case lighting illuminates merchandise in glass or open cases and shelves. It can be linear fluorescent or spotlighting depending on the type of display Perimeter lighting provides vertical illumination for merchandise along walls, such as vertical shelving and can use valance systems or linear wall-washing systems Lighting clothing The primary purpose of lighting is to make merchandise look good, increasing the desirability of the item leading to a sale. When lighting clothing a flexible lighting solution is needed to allow the lighting to be reconfigured when displays are altered or moved. The market positioning of the store (high, mid, low-tier) should be considered when designing the installation, and also the possible options for display, as clothing Applications and Techniques 79

3 may be hung on rails, displayed on shelves or shown in an entirely novel way. Differing materials used in the design of the display fittings and the size of the displays will require differing lighting techniques. However lighting should remain discrete to ensure the main focus is the merchandise, and should be as efficient as practicable. One of the main issues with clothing is colour rendering and colour temperature. Customers need to see the items they are thinking of buying in a quality of light that shows the garment correctly. Any post purchase dissatisfaction when seeing the article in the daylight must be avoided. The Ra of the lamp must be at least 85 so that colours are reproduced as faithfully as possible. Also note that the UV characteristics of the lamp should be checked to ensure that it is suitable for the material being lit and will cause no effects such as fading of colours. New generations of metal halide lamp offer a wide choice of warm or cool white light. LEDs with their improved performance are also becoming more widely used. LED luminaires can be smaller and easy to blend into the background. However, downlights and track mounted spotlights remain the most common fixtures. Greengrocery Main objectives are to ensure that fruits and vegetables are shown under the best colour rendering bright light. Using specific type of lamps that create colourful accents can bring out freshness of produce. Warm accents are preferred with a low content of actinic radiations (to prevent fading of colour in goods) and low heat radiation. This kind of light is often realised with suspended structures hanging above the displays allowing spotlights integration. 80 Applications and Techniques

4 Bakery, cheese and delicatessen A warm, oven-fresh appearance can be created on the bread, while cream pastries appear appetising when illuminated by halogen lamps or warm white metal halide. Wines and spirits A lower lighting level helps to recreate the atmosphere of a wine cellar. With lower dark ceilings mounted with fluorescent downlights the atmosphere may be emphasised further. Fresh food counters The ceiling is often lower than in the rest of the hypermarket. Recessed luminaires provide a good illuminance level, accentuating the freshness of the displays with a combination of different high Ra colour lamps. Applications and Techniques 81

5 Task lighting This provides illumination for a specific functional area such as the checkout counter. This is not to be confused with accent or focal-point lighting. Particular attention has to be paid to avoid any glare at the cashier position in order to assure a comfortable activity with no mistakes. The area beyond the checkout should be lit to a level that provides a transition zone for shoppers leaving the supermarket and going into daylight or the dark of night. Guidance Indoor guidance - due to the diversity of goods a clear communication with colours, graphemes, and lighting has to be established in order to guide customers. This guidance is sometimes mandatory for safety reasons: exit ways being indicated in case of emergency evacuations. Signage Additional to guidance the use of lighting to signal locations and features is important. For outdoor lighting, facades, communication, logos, etc. help present the sales policy and brand positioning. 82 Applications and Techniques

6 Schemes Super-store Scheme: Computer super-store, 37m x 51m x 7m Luminaire(s) used: Primata II 2x58W T26 with 5m mounting height, Sirios 150W HIT-DE (spotlight) and 2x55W Voyager Twinspot (emergency lighting) Sales area: Eav = 802 lux ; E min /E av = 0.68 Applications and Techniques 83

7 Schemes Hypermarket Scheme: Hypermarket, 80m x 63m Luminaire(s) used: Arena 2x70W T26 Floor: E av = 560 lux ; E min /E av = 0.76 Scheme: Hypermarket, 80m x 63m Luminaire(s) used: Arena 2x70W T26 Floor: E av = 980 lux ; E min /E av = 0.83 Wall-washing luminaires illuminating food products on shelving. It is important to ensure a good level of vertical illuminance on shelving so that products are adequately lit. Colour of light can make a large impact on the appearance of goods and should be carefully matched to the requirements of the product on display. 84 Applications and Techniques

8 The lighting should allow for large obstructions such as signage and seasonal decorations to be displayed without causing shadowing. Lighting demands may vary across the store, with differing store configuration and colour needs. Accent lighting along the front of counters can make them stand out and appear more welcoming. Consideration should be given as to the goods being lit. Glass and crystal objects should be made to sparkle, light appearing to come from inside the object, whilst solid objects such as clothes need to have light projected onto them. Applications and Techniques 85