With a high feel-good factor customers become guests

Whether cooking or baking, star chef or hobby cook, whether in an exclusive restaurant or in the kitchen at home – enjoyment with all the senses already starts with exciting selection in the food stores. Only the right ingredients make taste buds glow, eyes dream and fill noses with pleasantly fragrant odours. The food retailers would like to make this seduction something that can already be experienced in their supermarkets. What is clear is that the sector is on the move. The food retail trade has recognized the seductive potential of its goods. It is the delicious basis for turning shopping into an experience. On the basis of this finding the EDEKA Minden/Hannover regional company has implemented a new store concept in its innovation supermarket in Braunschweig. There people stroll through ideally illuminated aisles and revel at fresh food counters. What proves successful in the supermarket with an area of very nearly 6,400 square metres, other independent EDEKA retailers will soon be able to take over for their branches: video walls for information and activities, walk-in beverage refrigerators or novel car park ticket vending machine equipment. A large number of tablet computers are available for additional inspiration during product selection. In that way, in a sensuous atmosphere the shopping trip becomes a stroll through culinary delights.

Orientation by clarity 
The versatile new shopping opportunities must be presented to the guests in the supermarket in a clearly structured manner. This is supported by Ansorg’s lighting concept. It makes the creative guidance system clear and makes signs talk: “Our apples show their colours” – that is something that customers cannot only read, but can also see. The slogans and photos of the new in-store communication system develop their full effect in the right light. With large, clearly visible letters, product categories such as cheese, wine and sausage provide orientation over a wide area. 

Luminaires and lighting concept all from the same source 
Just as each dish of a menu with several courses repeatedly delights the consumer’s palate in different ways, the lighting concept crowns the individual groups of goods in the supermarket. For that purpose EDEKA relies on an open bright ambiance and a sales-promoting lighting concept. ”Light is for us a central design element for increasing our guests’ feeling of well-being”, emphasizes Olaf Beyer, EDEKA sales coordinator for supermarket planning and equipment. “Ansorg at the same time provides a good mix of precision and economic efficiency.” The lighting concept complements the feel-good atmosphere of the shop fitting, enhances the quality of the stay and creates a cosy atmosphere. In that way customers become guests who like to linger longer and allow themselves to be inspired to buy.

Exclusively and with variety the light emphasizes the individual function areas and different groups of products. In the entrance area and on the wide aisles Piazza suspended luminaires guide the guests through the supermarket with an inviting lighting atmosphere. The surface-mounted spotlight Take ensures lighting accents and the prize-winning luminaire Navo sets new standards in shelf lighting. Navo provides dynamism and structure and takes the light to where it belongs: on the goods. By means of specially developed reflectors, Navo can adapt to many aisle widths and ceiling heights. At the serving counters the lighting concept redeems the slogan “mild, spicy, savoury”, since it is exactly like this that meat and sausage glisten under the fresh light. Different bakery products and cheeses appear particularly tasty and delicious under lighting with a warm white light colour.

Light stimulates the appetite 
A special highlight in the innovation supermarket is the fruit and vegetable department. Over the huge area of 500 square metres, EDEKA underscores its freshness standard directly at the entrance. On the stylized market stalls a lot of wood makes for cosiness. Warm, accentuated lighting from LED spotlights flatters the goods. The light of a Mediterranean summer morning invites you to linger in front of goods baskets containing appetizingly fresh fruit and vegetables.

Thanks to finely balanced light levels and a juicily tasty colour rendition, apples, tomatoes, herbs etc. look good enough to eat already before they are purchased. That is likely to spark additional purchases by quite a few culinarians beyond the menu originally planned. ”Eating and drinking is a sensuous topic for us. Besides the feel-good atmosphere due to precisely coordinated light colours and intensities throughout the supermarket our focus is on appetizing and sales-promoting setting of scenes for the individual groups of products”, explains Ansorg lighting expert Frederyk Grau. With their extensive portfolio and their great experience, the lighting experts in Mülheim an der Ruhr are reliable partners of the food supermarkets on their journey into the future.