Measurement of Sound Environments in Shopping Spaces of Large-scale Stores

摘要

Sound environments in shopping spaces tend to be unnecessarily noisy, with mixtures of such sounds as shoppers' activity, work, and amplified sales talk or music. In this study, we obtained an overview of the sound environment in large-scale stores, with the eventual aim of providing better sound conditions in them. We measured the noise levels and the types of audible sound in 143 large-scale stores, selling groceries, electrical appliances, or household equipment. The overall noise level in the stores varied from 52 to 76 dBA. A cluster analysis, which produced groups of stores based on similarities between the patterns of audible time of each sound, revealed that specific sounds, such as information from loudspeakers, were found in the group of stores with a relatively high noise level.