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Retail
Centre
The primary purposes of plants in a retail centre
are:
•
To stimulate excitement and interest in centre
visitors
•
To assist management of customer flow through
the use of strategic focal points.
To effectively promote an exciting environment
with plants a continually changing vista should
be employed within the centre.
Centre refits are obviously necessary if the
centre is to retain its sense of vitality but
they are very costly. Plants can offer a cost
effective actively changing vista.
Over eighty percent of attendances at centres
are repeat visits and plants, like anything else,
can quickly become taken for granted and disappear
into the background.
tbg believes that the most cost effective means
of achieving a high level of vitality with resulting
buyer stimulus is through the use of a punctuated
floral display.
This is achieved by taking key points through
the centre and four to six times a year, for the
duration of between two and four weeks, introduce
seasonal floral exhibits. These, in between times,
return to basic green foliage.
In terms of traffic management the evidence is
that people will gravitate to a verdant area.
Evidence is centre shoppers gravitate to the
entertainment areas and the food outlets in the
centre. This suggests that the greatest concentration
of plants be in these areas.
Planted pathways can be used where the concourse
configuration is such as to result in a break
in customer traffic flow as in the case of arcades
or centres with multiple levels.
The use of strategically placed groupings of
plants can relieve exposed or bland area and increase
the flow of traffic to these hostile or black
areas.
The selection of plant material should take account
of the demographic of the centre.
Severe sculptured specimens in a centre with
predominantly conservative staple buyers can have
as distancing affect on the customer base. The
use of the ubiquitous figs in a predominantly
adventurous young professional market will have
a similar effect.
Account must also be taken of the concourse furniture
and surrounds which are frequently bright, reflective
and crowded.
Single specimens relegated to the middle of the
main when seen against the myriad signs and in
the midst of a throng of shoppers will have marginal
value at best.
Proliferated through several kilometres of concourse
there is good argument for selective reduction.
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