Above And Below

Supermarket ceilings and floors are the foundations of a store's total ambience.

Displays and products change from aisle to aisle and department to department, but a retail food store's ceilings and floors are a constant part of the shopping environment.

"Detraction in the appearance of a supermarket due to damaged ceilings can result in a negative shopping experience," observes Cindy O'Neill, marketing communications specialist at ABP (Armstrong Building Products) Ceilings, part of Armstrong World Industries in Lancaster, Pa.

With this the case, she continues, to aesthetically define spaces, or spot-treat acoustical problems that can be found in open plenum (space that facilitates air circulation) designs, Armstrong offers canopies, clouds, blades and baffles.

"These solutions are standard," O'Neill notes, "and are available in kits for easy installation and unique custom-look configuration. They are available in a wide selection of materials, including mineral fiber, fiberglass, wood, metal and translucent, to meet any design criteria."

Green-wise, Armstrong's Create product line can be mixed and matched with the company's Ultima and Optima ceiling panels for an upscale visual with a product that contains up to 71 percent recycled content, O'Neill says, and many Optima products are manufactured with a breakthrough plant-based organic binder.

"For renovation projects," she notes, "ceilings can be replaced as part of the Armstrong Ceiling Recycling program, which has recycled over 123 million square feet of ceiling panels since the program began in 1999."

Future supermarket ceiling innovations will continue to contribute to LEED (Leadership in

Energy and Environmental Design) building projects, O'Neill asserts, not just in terms of the products themselves, but also in how they affect the indoor environment of interiors. "Acoustical comfort, indoor air quality and light reflectance will continue to be important characteristics of a space, in addition to the recycled content of a ceiling and its ability to be recycled," she says.

"Additional innovations include the ability to customize products instead of using only mass-produced products. Custom sizes and new layout types in sloped, staggered and layered ceiling planes can still offer important acoustical benefits in a fresh look," she continues.

Industrial Appeal

There's also a trend toward leaving vents, ductwork and joists exposed.

"People in my stores are getting away from ceilings," says David Yehuda of DY Design in Kings Point, N.Y., who designs about 100 stores a year, mostly in the New York City metropolitan area. "There are fewer drop ceilings. The open look can give a higher look, and people don't mind seeing the vents and ducts visible."

Yehuda adds: "The future is the past. What's new is metallic ceilings like copper, for a very low cost per square foot."

Supermarket ceiling lighting is an ongoing challenge for operators, according to Susan Fowler, retail brand manager for East Cleveland, Ohio-based GE Lighting. "In an effort to enhance the brand image and experience, operators must provide uniform lighting and high quality, minimizing glare through aesthetically pleasing luminaires," she says. "However, they must be particularly mindful of the cost of energy usage, especially as some stores are open 24/7 and margins are thin. This makes energy savings critically important, often more so with supermarkets than for other types of retailers."

Fowler references a Sainsbury's store in Leek, England, the first supermarket installation to use GE's Lumination LED Suspended Linear luminaires, a thin, uniform illuminated lighting panel, which is suspended from the ceiling and powered with Intrinsix Optical technology, as particularly eco-friendly, as well as GE's Albeo high bay lighting for supermarkets in larger, warehouse-like settings.

In the near future, Fowler expects to see more use of natural sunlight in stores, as well as increasing LED lighting options, ever-improving optical lens designs for better aesthetics, LED lamps designed to enhance the natural colors of fresh produce, lower ambient light levels throughout stores, and controls that are more granular and zoned, with more integration.

"A good lighting design enhances a store's efforts at creating an inviting and exciting experience for shoppers," she adds.

Firm Footing

Supermarket floors are also a challenge, especially in regard to maintenance, which "is the biggest issue," says Ron Phillips, product manager at Dur-A-Flex Inc. in East Hartford, Conn. "Traditional flooring options like VCT [vinyl composition tile] are low-cost, but regular stripping and waxing are required, often with non-eco-friendly products."

Dur-A-Flex seamless flooring systems eliminate the need for stripping and waxing, Phillips explains, and allow for green cleaning products to be used, ensuring that the full life cycle of the floor is realized.

The company's Hybri-Flex flooring system has a built-in moisture mitigation system to deter floor failure due to moisture and salients in the concrete substrate, according to Phillips, and the Poly-Crete system handles lactic acids, foodstuffs and hightemperature wash-downs without delaminating or retaining bacteria.

Phillips says that Dur-A-Flex floors of the future will include more decorative options, including updated vinyl chip selections, and that the newly released ReFLEXions designer flooring offers an epoxy-based system with unique looks and a no-wax finish.

"Grocery stores rely heavily on the appeal of visual merchandising," says Tricia Fanty, North American commercial marketing manager for Lancaster, Pa.-based Armstrong Commercial Floors. "Flooring and lighting are the main tools a designer has for creating an environment in a supermarket grocery aisle."

As an example, Fanty mentions the New Generations Décor Package used by Balls Food Stores at its Lenexa, Kan., Hen House Market, a new design prototype employing Armstrong Natural Creations. Further, she adds, seven colors of Natural Creations Mystix were used at the Tremont, Kan., Hen House Market; the collection's 60-plus contemporary colors and patterns "make mixing and matching fun and easy for designers."

Fanty notes that the combination of sizes and consistent colorways between patterns allowed the creation of a multitextured, almost monochromatic floor design, punctuated by contrasting accents that energize the floor and highlight specific store departments.

Last year, Armstrong expanded its BBT (bio-based tile) offering, Migrations, introduced in 2007, to include Striations BBT, a collection of stylish non-PVC tiles featuring a unique 12-inch-by-24-inch linear format design that creates a multitude of interior options when planning out a space. This new product was inspired by the natural qualities found in ancient stone and time-weathered wood.

"Armstrong has reduced the maintenance of its resilient products by producing our LVT (luxury vinyl tile) and sheet goods, except for slip-retardant flooring product, with UV (ultraviolet)-cured urethanes," Fanty says. The company's linoleum products use exclusive NATURCote UV-cured coating to improve scuff resistance and reduce damage from scratching, while providing a non-strippable, dirt-resistant coating, thus reducing water and chemical usage and labor needed for routine maintenance. "With our heterogeneous sheet line," Fanty adds, "the UV-cured coating eliminates the need for polishes and spray buffing."

Fanty emphasizes that recycling is part of the company's closed-loop process to reduce environmental impact. In June 2012, Armstrong World Industries launched its vinyl composition tile (VCT) flooring-recycling program, piloted by Armstrong in 2009, which collects and recycles all VCT products.

As to the future of supermarket floors, Fanty says: "While we have seen some shift to alternative products, luxury vinyl tile still shows the strongest growth and is the ideal product for the grocery store application. We continue to see improved color and design, and new modular formats that allow for unique designs within the grocery segment."

"Acoustical comfort, indoor air quality and light reflectance will continue to be important characteristics of a space."

—Cindy O'Neill, ABP Ceilings