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What a great idea (lemmy.world)
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[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 weeks ago

people lack spacial awareness in the grocery store because a supermarket is an example of hostile design. it is intentionally disorienting and overloads you with information

[-] MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Lol, what? I have no issue navigating one. "Overloads you with information", for fuck's sake, they're selling thousands of things.

[-] ClamDrinker@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

You really should look into it more (it's not a secret if you look for it) because OP is right. Yes, they're selling thousands of things BUT they're also designing that space to make you take as long as possible to get through it. The answer for why that is, is simple. People buy more. You don't have to have an "issue" navigating with it, because you just don't notice if you spend 5 minutes more walking through the place. If it was so egregious to be noticed easily by people, they would stop coming and the benefit evaporates. So it's a balance.

It's not even that, grocery stores bake bread and spread bread smell since it perks people up and makes them more willing to spend, play specific music that calms and soothes you so you'll walk slower. When you walk into a grocery store, you are walking through a highly specialized environment to maximize profits.

[-] blarghly@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

they’re also designing that space to make you take as long as possible to get through it

I get eggs, meat, veggies, and a few things from the mexican food section. When I don't immediately know where something is, I ask an employee.

grocery stores bake bread and spread bread smell since it perks people up

I haven't noticed this in a grocery store for years.

play specific music that calms and soothe

The top 40 from 30-10 years ago?

I'm betting that, yes, at some point the stores thought of all these ideas and talked them up to potential investors or whatever. But then they actually looked into them and found they didn't replicate, and so they just do whatever now

[-] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

This is the core problem, right here. At a minimum, people need training to learn what information to ignore so you can navigate the whole thing. Even if you know the store's layout, you still need to have the will to ignore advertising and disregard extraneous information. Being a fast reader that can do fast mental math, also helps tremendously.

Traffic flow is another problem. Wegmans is the chief offender here, IMO, by putting impulse items in massive crates that crowd the store entrance+exit combo. It amazes me that it's not a fire hazard, because it makes entering the store a nightmare. But most grocery stores have awful choke points in produce, dairy, meat, and other high-traffic areas. And of course those are the stores that have no small carts or hand-baskets, obligating customers to gum up the works with big metal baskets that are 70% empty.

A better idea is a store that doesn't flood your eye sockets with information you don't absolutely need. Get rid of the special displays, end-cap bullshit, and vendor promotional stuff. Then, normalize all the price tags and include unit cost per lb/oz/L/whatever to make bargain hunting a snap. Then, measure the fucking carts and make sure that two can get by everywhere in the store. Finally, pick a store layout and stick to it.

I want to say that Aldi is already doing all of the right things, but I could be wrong.

[-] MintyFresh@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

Aldi is by far my favorite. No nonsense, good prices. You're in, you're out. I appreciate they don't play games.

[-] teslekova@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

The only thing that might be a problem is that milk and butter is at the back. But that is actually fine because everyone goes clockwise around the aisles, and there is room to pass, so it flows really easily. You go past all the basics you might need in like a minute.

[-] GladiusB@lemmy.world -1 points 2 weeks ago

I don't think you realize who runs grocery stores. Most are just there because they have to be. They just throw it on the shelf and do what they are told.

[-] OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

The people stocking the shelves aren't the ones designing the store layout, dummy.

[-] GladiusB@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

Rude. I worked as a grocery manager for 15 years.

Dummy.

[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 weeks ago

did you design the store layout?

[-] GladiusB@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Did you? Do you know how most are laid out? Please enlighten me on their "information bombardment".

[-] OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

A team from corporate designs the general layout, and the layout of most of the shelves, sometimes with help from an outside firm. Occasionally there will be specific shelves or event spaces that don't have a planogram will be laid out by someone in-store, but this is usually a pretty small percentage of the store.

[-] Chaotic_Altruist@lemmy.zip -1 points 2 weeks ago

The stores are told on a corporate level that items need to be stocked on certain shelves and all essential items (milk, eggs, whatever) need to be buried in the back behind anything that's on sale so customers have to look at everything before getting the basics.

Workers are people who follow orders and have to live with the chaos and help customers actually find the item they're looking for even though the company as a whole is the problem

[-] GladiusB@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

No they aren't. They have reset crews that come and change the layout for many reasons. I was a grocery manager for 15 years. Specifically the stocking manager. There has never been a "bombard them with information" directive.

It's what sells best in the area and make it available. It's not that highly coordinated.

[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net -1 points 2 weeks ago

it's the who does the telling who creates the hostile design. the other things you're describing, the dehumanization of the employees, are part of that design

[-] GladiusB@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

There isn't anyone saying it's a hostile design. You don't know what you are talking about.

[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 weeks ago
[-] GladiusB@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

One article that I can't even fully read? Hardly call that evidence. It's an interesting hypothesis. However in practice impulse buys are not what the discussion was. It is that the entire store is there to "bombard" you. It's not. It's categorized and that's about it. You are thinking of the "sales" area. Which is routinely paid for by vendors.

this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2026
56 points (98.3% liked)

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