Supermarket Lighting

Grocery store lighting serves the dual purpose of increasing workspace functionality for store employees and creating a favourable shopping experience for customers. Different sections within the store require certain minimum thresholds of illumination. For example, light levels for displays and shelves should have higher visibility and allow customers to discern the details between competing product offerings.

Meanwhile, staff only areas such as the storeroom do not share the same visibility requirements and can be more sparsely lit, whilst maintaining minimum safety standards. A mix of best practices and workplace regulations should guide the overall development of the lighting design. Technical considerations of effective supermarket lighting design are best discussed with experienced professionals.

Point Of Sale

As a place of detail-oriented tasks such as money exchange, customer interaction, and bagging of purchased goods, the register and check-out areas require high visibility. This is an area where employee and customer considerations converge with comfort for both being important.

Employees will be more comfortable in an adequately illuminated space that allows them to simultaneously serve customers and perform the functions of operating the register. Light levels that are too low can cause eye strain to staff members over longer periods of time. For the customer, use of warm white lighting is more likely to make them feel comfortable. In comparison, cool white lighting evokes a more clinical feeling.

This area is also an important place for last minute impulse purchases, so ensuring the registers are well lit will also increase sales.

Aisles

The Aisles occupy the largest amount of floor space in a grocery store. Lighting for these areas needs to account for product visibility as well as provide customer navigation within the space. The selected lighting should create a clear view of the pathway, evenly illuminate both sides of the display shelves while avoiding shadows, and be bright enough to allow customers to read small details on product packaging.

Backroom

While customers will not see the storeroom, it is still an important space as workers need to be able to perform necessary tasks. In this regard, practicality is of higher importance than overall aesthetics of the lighting chosen and should meet the Building Code of Australia regulations.

Fresh Produce Area

Fresh produce areas are an important revenue-generating section of the grocery store, so it is important to feature this space in a positive way. In most major supermarkets, the fresh produce is located at the entrance. Creating a sense of freshness and enticing customers to purchase a range of fresh produce, it is critical to consider the lighting scheme for this area.

Customers tend to buy fresh produce more than once a week due to the perishable nature of the goods. High product margins on fresh produce is balanced by a shorter shelf-life of these items. The urgency to sell the product requires attention to making it look as attractive as possible but also ensure confidence in customers that they are getting exactly what they want.

Vibrant colours will entice people to take a closer look at the offering, but ultimately a shopper will inspect for the perfect piece of fruit or vegetable. It is important that they can easily look for marks or blemishes on the produce. A combination of track lighting and suspended pendant lighting can accomplish the desired results for this area.

Colour Rendering Index