Product Placement in the Supermarket

It won’t just be an English thing. Our major supermarkets tend to be national across the country, rather than just one part of it.

Oh, wine aisle. Wish we had them here in NY!

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Well, ours kinda are. They’ll go by different names but, like many other things, regional stores are merging with other regional stores. But unless a store has been shut down for a major remodel and expansion, everything pretty much stays put. Individual products come and go (our local Safeway has greatly expanded their Hispanic line due to demographics but everything has remained as it’s been for well over ten years.

When the kids were growing up I created a sheet that I left on the kitchen counter with all of the items that we purchase. If they ate the last one they checked the line and it was replaced. The list was based on the left to right in the grocery store. It made the trip very efficient and I never fell into the “Costco Syndrome.”

Now with just the two of us in the house there is not that much weekly, but more a daily for the protein and replenishment of veggies, and fridge stuff.

Over the years the original list rarely changed due to re-placement of the items in the store, but not a chain. They recently moved all the fridge items around. Not sure why but it took a few weeks to get used to it.

Impulse buying is pretty much in the rear view mirror for me.

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I was just reading an article about how the wealthy got that way. One of the things was no impulse buying!

What is the “Costco Syndrome”? Don’t tell me you don’t go up and down every aisle out of fear you’ll miss out on a treasure?!?!? :slight_smile:

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Wow, you’re lucky. Here on the east coast (Philly area), most supermarkets change around fairly regularly. My local Giant seems to be constantly “tweaking”–HBA section will be where it always was, but now the toothpaste is where the shampoo used to be, etc.

As others have said, there is a whole industry focused on getting you to buy more and that often involves getting you to wander the aisles.

And count me among the shoppers who are very annoyed at the sheer number of mid-aisle product displays that prevent the free-flow of traffic in the aisles.

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Fairway makes me insane. They literally have salt in four different places! So when you do finally find and ask an employee they take you to one of the four yet somehow kosher salt isn’t there either. It’s with the meat rubs next to the butcher counter. Duh.
Raisins are in the bulk bins, in the produce section, and also in the baking aisle and others in the organic aisle. There are also at least three locations for nuts, oatmeal, and vinegar…

yeah. I’ve been debating intentionally knocking that stuff over.

would that convey a message?

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Unfortunately the people who have to clean up the mess aren’t the corporate wonks who make the decisions :frowning:

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No.

The wine aisle? THAT is something we’ll never see here in PA!

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I use a free phone app called “List Ease” when I have a lot of grocery shopping to do. It lets me group and categorize items on my list (dairy; produce; baking;, etc), and it removes the items from the list as I check them off. I’m sure there are others that work similarly.

That would be nice if the supermarket used it too!

being a Nerd Majorous, there’s a bit more to it…

for example, it stores “dishes” - so if I select “stir fry” it will automatically put all the stuff I normally need for stir fry on the list - color coded so I ‘know’ to check for existing stock before going shopping. this little detail has eliminated stir fry with no water chestnuts, pizza without black olives, etc etc.

it also has a “comment” field per “use” - if I need three cans of tomato sauce, I can enter “3x” for example. very useful for the odd stuff.
if I put “keep” in the comment field, when I do a “new list” the item is not deleted - very helpful for stuff I’m gonna’ need some day but no really urgent.

it also stores the PLU - so at the self-check out I don’t have to look up garlic comma fresh - its PLU (4608) is in the description…

being a nerd has serious advantages. I’ve provided the program to a number of people, but to date none of them have the discipline to observe/enter the store aisle/location for items - so it’s just me and the electrons. oh well.

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Yup. Our Wegmans regularly moves entire produce sections around. Drives me absolutely insane. And I doubt they’re trying to get you to buy an extra avocado or papaya just because you happen to have to go past it.

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I think stores in metro areas are more likely to carry new products from smaller producers and that’s likely to necessitate moving things around. That and seasonal items.

My auntie had a mini-meltdown last summer when she couldn’t find her regular brand of bread. It had been moved halfway down the aisle to accommodate the expanded hotdog and hamburger buns selection for grilling season.