In general I’m not a big fan of shopping, possibly with the exception of books. As a typical American wedded to my smartphone to figure out anything about the world around me one of the things that really, really, frustrates me about supermarkets is that you always to situate yourself and puzzle out where the items you want are. Of course, this is part of the point, as supermarkets are designed to get you to purchase on impulse high margin items which are strategically located. It’s not a coincidence that the deli is usually in front, or that the ends of the aisles prominently display potato chips and other junk food. Of course many people go to the same store over and over, and so you know where to go. But every time you have to make it to a new supermarket the process of avoiding the bright crap pushed into your face starts all over again.
The problem is general to retail. If getting the customer to the items as fast as possible was the ideal then there would always easy to search map terminals. Or, retailers would long ago have agreed on relatively standardized layouts (obviously to some extent there is some homogeneity because of market and structural demands; produce is always at the edge, magazines are at checkout, etc.). To avoid this many of us are using Amazon
The future should be interesting.
Comments are closed.