You reminded me of when a partner and I entered a grocery store to buy sun screen lotion. I narrated my thoughts figuring out where it would be and found it immediately. She commented on how she'd never have found it that quickly. All I did was make logical deductions based on my knowledge of grocery stores.

Truly, people think differently. What is natural to me might be alien to another.

you are querying a crowd on Lemmy that is going to be biased towards programmer / engineer types that tend to function well in their world due to compulsive features often considered pathologic by others.

I feel personally attacked. :D

Edit: also to answer the question. Yes I absolutely arrange things on the checkout belt.

I group these items: Liquids. Fridge. Cans and bottles. Fruit and veg, heavier ones first so the potatoes don't crush the berries. Frozen gear near fridge gear. Chemicals / cleaning gear separate.

I should add that I'm buying for a lot of people so the shopping trips tend to be large and there would be a full bag of most of those groupings.