Retail Signage During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Early in 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic began to impact countries across the world. Within weeks, people’s normal social behavior had to be changed in order to stop the spread of the disease. In Canada, where this study takes place, governments and public health departments were the primary and trusted information sources. Photographs of retail signs were taken by the author in one neighborhood in a major Canadian city in March and April. Along with descriptive information, the author speculates on the meaning conveyed by the printer-paper signs, beyond their traditional role of supporting wayfinding. Paper’s relative fragility may have simultaneously reflected the uncertainty that people felt in the early days of the pandemic, while its familiar and timeless presence may have provided a sense of emotional security and direction. Marking a return to “business as usual”, stores replaced many, but not all of the informal signs with professionally produced and branded signs suggesting that the early “blind panic” had been replaced by a form of “steady state”. One could say that retailers demonstrated corporate social responsibility through their efforts in creating and posting the signs to create awareness of, educate, and reinforce the new and changing social distancing behaviors.

A Cross-Sectional Study and Observational Assessment of Shoppers’ COVID-19 Prevention Behaviors in Southwestern Ontario, Canada

“…Signage has been shown to change behavior in many categories and spaces, 33 and thus visible and tailored health messages can promote favorable health behaviors. Additionally, the effectiveness of messaging is dependent on the customization, 32,34 and levels of message fatigue, 35 but the present study did not evaluate the extent of the messaging beyond its presence. Further research exploring store managers' perceptions of health messaging may elucidate public health messaging preferences and needs from a market perspective.…”

“…Although this was not a comprehensive sampling of all indoor settings, the lack of signage may indicate that corporate social responsibility has diminished throughout the course of the pandemic. 32 It is also speculated that the removal of health messages may have resulted from a conflict with brand and marketing messages aimed at drawing in customers. Signage has been shown to change behavior in many categories and spaces, 33 and thus visible and tailored health messages can promote favorable health behaviors.…”

The Optimized Social Distance Lab

“…The cost in person-hours to the global economy represented by the millions of concurrent and disparate exercises in building layout replanning during the pandemic has been truly significant [3]. To ameliorate against further substantial cost to the economy through both abortive space planning and non-compliant layouts [4], we propose a unique automated methodology for building operators to redesign their layouts to comply with social distancing. This will reduce timescales for reopening and adaptation in the event of revised government advice, local lockdown, or further variant outbreaks [5]; benefitting user health through verification of distances, whilst improving the efficiency of building operation through optimization of capacity.…”

Improving the Effectiveness of Anti-COVID Measures in Buildings: Learning from Users’ Perception

“…In this context, balancing the need for control measures and the open-access design concept appears essential [7], and the use of procedures and administrative controls can contribute to a safer building environment [8]. Social distancing, which requires clear and consistent communication [20], can be considered a design issue [15], and the spatial configuration of buildings plays a major role in encouraging or discouraging adherence to new interaction policies due to the pandemic [4]. Hence, in the pandemic context, spatial design-meant as a conceptual design approach accounting for both the interior and service designs-can also improve indoor air quality by managing people's flows in interiors [9].…”