Enter some Sears stores today, and it feels as if you’re walking into a cave. The lighting is dark and gray and makes the store feel depressing, old, out-of-date, and filthy.
The last Sears I visited in Florida was at the Volusia Mall in Daytona Beach, Florida last June. The mall itself was built in 1974 according to Wikipedia, but was renovated as recently as 2006. The common spaces and food court are appealing.
At left: Dark utility lighting, gray walls and ceilings, and flat-finish floors shown in a Northridge, Los Angeles, CA Sears store. (AP photo by Stefano Paltera, 2006.) At right: Macy’s sports a brighter ceiling, warmer cream-toned walls, and a shinier floor in a Columbus, Ohio store . (AP photo by Kiichiro Sato, 2007).
Some of the stores, especially the Volusia Mall Macy’s with its cream colored walls and good lighting, appear pleasantly sunny, despite being indoors. The environment is the perfect backdrop for their colorful, shiny, sparkly merchandise and I rarely find myself leaving the store without at least one purchase – a new blouse, a purse, or a lovely pair of earrings. However, walk into the Sears at the other end of the mall and you feel as if you’ve suddenly entered the discount shopping center.
I imagine that Sears is trying to cut costs and be politically correct by installing low-cost energy efficient fluorescent lighting. However, the particular bulbs they have chosen seem better suited for a warehouse, parking garage, basement, or storeroom than for a retail store. Products, which should appear new, fresh, shiny, bright, and colorful look old and pre-worn. The store looks more like a dollar store than a large and important retail outlet. The floor in many Sears stores is even dirty, perhaps because the workers can’t see the dirt or because the strobing fluorescent lights give them a headache. I assume that this particular Sears store has not been renovated in sometime, but perhaps the bad lighting is fooling my perception of it.
Despite falling sales, Sears occupies the largest contiguous retail space at the Volusia Mall at 192,096 square feet, and is one of the original anchor tenants. The Sears space is larger than the more successful Macy’s at 157,530 sq. ft and JC Penney at 145,668 square feet. Dilliards occupies a larger total space when you add their three disconnected store spaces at 323,249 square feet, but each store space is still smaller than Sears. (Facts on square footage from Wikipedia).
Lighting and color can play a very large role in effecting the moods of shoppers. The study of ergonomics, man’s relationship to his environment, has shown in countless studies that a correctly lit space greatly effects the mood and production of workers. Why not shoppers, too?
In 2006, a study was published called, “The impact of light and colour on psychological mood: A cross-cultural study of indoor work environments.” Summaries of the study can be found at Informe Design, and at Cat.Insist. In the study, five scientists, Rikard Kuller, Seifeddin G. Ballal, Thorbjorn Laike, Byron Mikellides, and Graciela Tonello, found that color and good lighting improve workers’ moods. 988 workers completed the study. Mood was at its lowest when lighting was perceived as too dark and at its highest when the lighting was perceived as just right. Moods were slightly lower when spaces were perceived as too bright.
A previous study from 2002 “The importance of light for health and well-being in outdoor and indoor environments,” by the same team of scientists showed that dark environments made workers feel tired and depressed.
A study by Laike and Kuller in 1998, titled, “The impact of flicker from fluorescent lighting on well-being, performance and physiological arousal. Ergonomics,” found that the flickering from fluorescent lighting actually causes certain individuals to speed up their work, but not do their work as well and make more mistakes. The flickering actually caused measurable nervous stress in the workers when their brain waves were analyzed. When electronic high-frequency ballasts of good quality were used, the flickering of the lights decreased.
So in other words, the cheap fluorescent lighting in Sears retail stores is causing shoppers to feel stressed and want to hurry out of the store. The dark lighting makes shoppers feel depressed and tired. This doesn’t sound like a very good recipe for retail success.
I love to shop at Sears because they carry an excellent collection of my favorite sports shoes: Reeboks; have a wonderful return and warranty policy; and carry some of the best quality brand tools and appliances (Craftsman and Kenmore). They also sell very nice clothing and housewares, if you can stand being inside the store long enough to look at them.
All Sears are not so dysfunctional. I recently visited the Sears in the Ala Moana Center mall in Honolulu, Hawaii. My family and I spent two valuable hours shopping in the store and left with over $300 in new shoes, clothing, and beautiful Hawaiian shirts.
I hope that Sears re-evaluates their lighting choices. A penny saved is not always a penny earned, especially when it comes to putting customers into a buying mood.
