Printed retail mats can have many uses ranging from brand reinforcement, creating valuable first impressions through to point of sale, increasing product awareness and subsequent sales. As these products have a visual impact the benefits are easily understood, but what about the more functional aspects of matting within retail?
Wal-Mart in the USA receive over a million visitors a week into their stores, they get sued almost once every two hours every day and many of these legal cases are slip and fall related (USA Today). In fact the retail industry has the highest number of same level falls compared to other industries, the associated claims add up to 17.1% of all employee related claims (Liberty Mutual Research Centre for Safety and Health).
It is the responsibility of the building owner or estate manager to identify areas of hazard to ensure the safety of both public and work force alike and often once the risk has been identified reduction or cure can be quite simple avoiding injury and associated costs.
Take a coffee machine or water dispenser for example, there is more than a reasonable chance of a spill which could lead to slip so why not invest in a simple containment mat, even brand it or add instruction advice, very simple and cost effective.
9 out of 10 slip and fall related incidents occur on wet floors (Profession retail Floor Maintenance).