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In many supermarkets, (Wal-Mart for instance), the aisles are laid out so that before you can get to the cheap, popular stuff (as in food), you must first work through the maze past the expensive, less popular stuff (such as jewelry). This is so that they can get you to purchase items you normally wouldn't.
In
my opinion, it takes too damn long to get in and out of the supermarket.
The idea would be that a law would be imposed to mandate a minimal level of consumer efficiency in supermarkets, by measuring the ratio of distance over popularity/cheapness.
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Another thing I hate is that there are no windows or clocks in there, so I don't realize its getting late until I'm out of there. |
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Think of the resources that would be wasted in trying to enforce this, though, and the additional resources wasted in trying to circumvent the enforcement; there would be a lawyers' feeding-frenzy, largely at public expense. |
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Have you considered just buying your groceries on-line? |
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I said "supermarket". Mom and Pop stores and small chains would be exempt. |
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The bony finger would be pointing at Wal-Mart, Food 4 Less, Costco, etc. (Safeway, Albertson's and the like don't count, they aren't really supermarkets.) |
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Anyway if it actually worked, this would save everyone time. And time is money. |
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Supermarkets put an enormous amount of effort and research into the layout of their stores. The confusing layout is deliberate - it's designed to slow you down so you spend more time there. Likewise, every six months or so, the supermarket will change the location of several 'staple' items to stop you learning optimum routes through the store. |
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what [hippo] said AND the feckin' cat litter is STILL 12" above my head - grrrrr. |
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Yes, they do all those things. |
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But this would be a chance for the public to shout a thunderous "Fuck you!" through the power of the government. |
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Why do you need to resort to legislation. You could simply open a supermarket and advertise it as being efficiently laid out with a little map that you can take home and plan your route. Presumably, if this idea has merit in a capitalist society it will be a success and will either occupy a niche or be copied by everybody else. |
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You can't effectively say "Fuck You" through the power of government - by the time it's gone through all the committees, and red tape, your initial message will have been translated to nothing more than a muffled yelp. |
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You can effect this yourself by mapping out your own supermarket, and publishing it online - perhaps even promoting it within the supermarket itself - encourage discussion, get other people to contribute - and all for your local supermarket. |
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\\The confusing layout is deliberate - it's designed to slow you down so you spend more time there\\ Perhaps a supermarket obstacle course is in order then. It could slow you down enough that you'd end up buying more, but you'd have fun while doing it. |
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Define a layout standard, attract venture capital money, and then open a store that conforms to it. |
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Open source supermarkets? |
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I am all for efficiency and I'm skeptical that doing this would hurt Walmart's business by that much. It might even help its business some. By allowing customers to get in and out faster I'm sure they would be in a better mood, and also it would serve to prevent customer buildup. The problem with customer build-up is that everybody leaves all at once as soon as they play a crummy song on the radio and then they have really long lines. [+] |
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Product arrangement facilitates competition. Consider two building supplies superstores in the States: Home Depot and Lowes. |
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Home Depot littered the aisles with product islands, and pushed the electrical supply section of the store to the rear. This made the store difficult to navigate. When Lowes entered the game, they kept aisles clear and put electrical supplies in the front of the store. |
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Shopping at Lowes was easier for me, so that is where I took my business. |
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Some people want some things first and others want other items. Brings to mind a very common and long phrase that is refrenced on the HB a lot. After all, you can't please everyone. |
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Bad. If I want to open a supermarket and
make my customers walk past the truffle
oil and larks tongues on their way to the
discount tofu, that's my business. If the
customers don't want to shop in my
supermarket, that's theirs. |
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//The idea would be that a law would
be imposed// ie advocacy [marked-for-
deletion] - see bakery rules. sorry
[spacecoyote] - possibly harsh call? |
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Uh... both the Wal-Marts near my home have the frozen food sections right up front. You just walk right in through the entrance and it's straight ahead, no maze involved. The non-frozen foods are just to the right, across a single aisle from the frozen foods in the Supercenter. The smaller one has the non-frozen foods right behind the frozen foods. It's very easy and simply laid out. Also, this violates the law of Free Market Economics, which is one of the most unique things about democratic nations. If you hate the layout that much, fill out a customer comment card or shop somewhere else. |
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This sounds like an application for route planning software and a local positioning system. |
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Attach the SPS (Supermarket Positioning System) to the trolley, punch in your favourites, and then listen: |
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"Turn left at aisle 10"
"Tins of beans 3ft on left"
"No, your other left" |
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The SPS is in the planning stages...I'm still figuring out the simplest map system necessary so users may quickly make a rough map for the system to follow. |
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Some stores offer a map, which is helpful, although none of the maps have a standard format, and none of them are very accurate either. |
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The alpha version will run on headless (that is, no GPS) on my GP2X game console. |
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I saw something similar on the movie 'Silent Hill' - ie left, left, right, right . . . the lead character ended up running into a whole bunch of mutant nurses armed with razor blades . . . think about it. |
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Another thing that sticks in my craw about this is this line: |
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//This is so that they can get you to purchase items you normally wouldn't.// |
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They put the expensive stuff in front because it's usually the newest item and probably in demand. If they put the new stuff in the back, they'd have people getting pissed because they were waiting for it to be released and now can't find it. As far as trying to encourage impulse buying, that's usually the cheap stuff like batteries, because they know if you buy an electronic item you're going to need batteries to go with it and because it's only a few extra bucks you're more likely to add it to your cart. |
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Store layouts are not a conspiracy like a lot of people seem to think. Yes, they have to sell their products, and yes, they employ sales techniques to get them sold faster. But seriously, can you blame them for putting a prominently displayed rack of batteries next to a bunch of stuff that requires batteries? That's saving you time trying to find them, because face it, you're going to need batteries. Is it wrong to do their job well? |
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And as an example of why they put expensive stuff out front, take a look at the PlayStation 3, Wii, and X-Box 360. The day those things were released from the manufacturer, stores were swamped with customers racing to get them before they ran out of stock. They put them up front not to encourage more people to buy them (that's what the huge banners outside are for), but to get the buyers in and out faster to keep the store from getting too crowded. Really, they know that people who came for the newest, most espensive products are going to just grab it and get out because they don't want to spend more money than they have to. If they really just wanted your money, they'd put the shit in the back and force you to get through the maze of cheap impulse purchases before reaching the high-dollar item you came for then go back through it to get to the checkout counter. |
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Actually those are in the back in this situation. |
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You go through the door and have to walk past the whole length of registers. |
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Then there is a big ass jewelry section one must get past, then you have to go through clothes and finally your at the edge of the way too huge food section (Its like half a mile between the canned peas and the frozen meats, and half a mile between the canned peas and the milk). |
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Then you have to walk all the way back to the registers, go through the damned line and you're out of there, 3 hours later than you came in with only 1 cart full of shoddy food and $250 lighter. |
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Damn, those Bics are getting expensive. |
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[xenzag] No, I don't think that's harsh at all. The concept of law is widely known to exist, and applying this concept to things you might, or might not like, doesn't really do anything particularly inventive. |
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I agree with ZT. You weren't rude or snide, but this clearly falls under the MFD banner, and you made the call. Disagreeing is not harsh, calling him a stupid cunt for posting such a shitty excuse for original thought would be harsh. |
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(By the way, I don't feel that way, Spacecoyote! I've seen far worse ideas here, It was just meant as an example of something I would consider harsh. I do not think you are stupid or a cunt, and I bear you no ill will whatsoever, and I would never say something like that unless it was another idea for torturing inmates or something cruel like that) |
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Shit, you know what I mean. You can't say anything that sounds less-than friendly here without a bunch of people jumping down your throat over it, getting emails from the moderators asking you be nicer, people taking it out of context, etc... |
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I love you too [21Quest] - I think being 'robustly honest' is important, and I don't see anything wrong with that - If it upsets people, they'll get over it - this is a website after-all, and we're all grown-ups - but it does mean that when you do give praise, people know you really mean it. |
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I've seen other websites that employ the "happy cuddle club" mentality - but I like this one because the general atmosphere is an honest one, occasionally brutally so. In my book, positive or negative, I'd rather have honesty every time. |
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Yeah, me too. If everyone gave every idea here a positive vote just to be nice and make people feel good, what would be the point? |
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