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Does Your Grocery Store’s Lighting Emphasize the Produce’s Color?

Grocery stores are segmented into different sections: the middle aisles of manufactured goods, the back sections of dairy, meat, and drinks, and then produce, bakery, and floral areas on opposite sides of the store. Usually, these sections are marked by signs and even different tiles to help guide shoppers. But those sections are also separated by different lighting styles, and that lighting plays a pivotal role in guiding shoppers, highlighting goods, and encouraging purchases. Here are two of the main factors for finding the right quality of light:

Choose your lights according to Correlated Color Temperature and Color Rendering Index.

The Correlated Color Temperature is based on the color of the light a lamp emits, and, when you’re using white light, enhances different colors and hues depending on its tone. The emittance is cool, which makes your store feel bigger, neutral, which promotes a feeling of well-being and makes customers more comfortable, or warm, which makes the setting feel smaller and more homey. Different lighting works well in different areas, even side by side, to create different feelings and highlight different products.

The Color Rendering Index measures how a light source renders the colors of lighted products. Some lights wash products out and make the colors fade, while others can create a high contrast for a focus on the products’ color. Color Rendering Index (CRI) is measured on a 0-100 scale, and using lights with a CRI between eighty and one hundred is best for a grocery because it makes colors look vivid and natural.

Different areas of a grocery store require different blends of lighting, and these two measures are critical for every display. Lighting the produce section with lights that have a poor CRI make the produce look less well-grown or healthy, regardless of the actual quality of the fruits and vegetables. If you want to emphasize a new organic display, placing lights with an even higher CRI than in the surrounding displays can make organic produce look even healthier and more nutritious.