CODE 2015 - International Conference on
LIGHTING DESIGN FOR RETAIL & COMMERCIAL INTERIORS GD GOENKA UNIVERSITY, GURGAON, INDIA
AN EMPERICAL STUDY OF LIFESTYLE STORES IN A MALL Divya Jain, Muskaan Arora, Manish Joshi, Mohit Bhardwaj, Paulette Hebert and Rahul Saini School of Fashion and Design, GD Goenka University, Delhi NCR, India Department of Design, Housing and Merchandising , Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma USA
Introduction, Objectives, Materials & Processes When it comes to designing a store, retailers are careful, spending a great deal of time in construction, marketing, and campaigns. But at times they unintentionally forget to study their customers, who are going to be the biggest influencers of their success. Further, the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), considered to be the lighting authority in North America, recommends increasingly higher light levels as anticipated occupants’ ages increase: younger eyes (˂25 years), middle-range eyes (25 – 65 years) and older eyes (˃65 years). An illuminance meter may be utilized to check compliance with industry-recommended lighting levels. The objectives of the study were to introduce students to lighting field studies and to determine if existing stores complied with industry recommendations. 3 undergraduate interior design and product design students participated in a one-week summer workshop entitled Lighting Design for Interiors: Advances and Trends, led by a visiting American faculty member partnering with two resident Indian faculty members at a School of Fashion and Design in a new University which is located in the Delhi National Capitol Region. For this study, the student-faculty research team utilized relatively inexpensive, hand-held tools. These included a meter with a remote, tethered photocell and utilized a digital. After a faculty-led training session in the university’s garment construction pattern-making laboratory, which featured a variety of garments displayed on mannequins, the research team traveled to a popular, “destination” mall in Delhi NCR, India and photo-documented and empirically measured electric light levels. Student research teams utilized a form developed by their instructor-advisor to organize the data. They measured light levels on selected horizontal and vertical displays. This exercise was accomplished over a four hour period. Students also converted their footcandle measurements to the international units of lux.
Results
Conclusions
To determine results, student research teams compared the measured levels to the current IES merchandise lighting recommendations and identified compliance or lack of compliance. A total of 29 horizontal measurements were made at displays in 3 chain stores. The stores’ merchandise assortments included: Organic body care and cosmetics products. Most of the stores’ display lighting complied with or exceeded the illumination recommendations for younger eyes. However, most of the displays exhibited light levels below the recommendations for older eyes. Some of the stores’ displays exceeded recommendations and some of them were below. Store A: Circulation's range is 200-250 lux and the researchers found it in the range and so the General Display was found i.e. (400-500 lux ). Whereas, the Feature Display was 192 lux which was below the standard i.e. (2000-3500 lux). Store B: Circulation is approx. 80% more than the standards i.e. (200-250 lux), Feature Display is 2200 lux whereas the standard is 2000-3500 lux. Store C: Circulation is 658 lux, whereas the standard is 200-250 lux, General Merchandising is 652 lux, whereas the standard is 400-500 lux.
Lighting Illuminance which was measured by Light Meter. According to the Research, We found out the Light Illuminating from light fixtures of Store A was much higher than standards and the other stores were below the standards.
Store B
Store C
Store A
We would like to encourage the retailers to use lighting illuminance as close to standards to decrease the wastage of electricity and even cut down on their electricity. Implications are that some older adults may not see merchandise well in the visited stores as the lighting quantity does not meet industry standards. Since family-centered shopping in India may include multiple generations and ages, this lack of compliance in some stores may potentially decrease older adult family members’ ability to appraise merchandise, decrease overall shopping satisfaction and jeopardize families’ future patronage of non-complying stores.