[tropo]

Heh. It's a longreads.com article, which should be a hint.

Basically it's about marketing firms trying to convince supermarket owners that inefficient layout and cute themes will save the day. All sorts of stuff is to be feared: millennials who prefer restaurants or Amazon (and won't age out of it by starting families), the giant Walmart monster, etc.

So make the customers zig-zag around a store, kind of like shopping at JCPenny or Macy's, or maybe even a casino. Take up space with weird stuff, like corrugated steel around the milk to evoke farm nostalgia. Create a mock up of an urban deli, complete with an awning that is hopefully useless under the supermarket's roof.

Evidently people like me are undesirable customers, because I hate all that stuff.

[logfromblammo]

Joining your camp. I go to the grocery to buy food, not cutesy-pootsy marketing kitsch that somehow turns a chore into an "experience". And if the store does stupid stuff to make an identical list of items take longer to buy and transport back to my home than it took before, it is adding time cost to the money cost, while also making the store seem more crowded. It is reducing the value of me going there in the first place.

One thing that really irritates me is "lifestyle aisles". I do not organize my shopping list by whether the food is "ethnic" or "health-conscious". To me, hoisin sauce is not "Asian foods"; it is a condiment. It's the same as Worcestershire sauce, barbecue sauce, ketchup, or mustard. Canned frijoles negros are exactly the same as canned black beans, so why are they in different aisles? If I want Cap'n Crunch and also a gluten-free hippy cereal with a happy gorilla on the box, they should both be in the same aisle. Put the lo mein next to the spaghetti, and the golden syrup next to the sugar, and the matzoh next to the Wasa. I shouldn't have to bounce between different random aisles to complete a shopping list organized by the type of food, rather than by the type of person who typically eats it.

[r00fus]

This is exactly why I don't shop at my local grocery/supermarket except when needed. TJs + Sprouts with occisional stops at Asian stores when I need more than hoisin/soy.

[DoubleCribble]

You'll probably want to avoid a stop at Stew Leonard's[0] in Norwalk, CT then. Ol' Stew pioneered the concept back in the 60's and it's definitely not for the short on time. The whole store is full of kitschy displays, animatronics, a petting zoo for the kids!, free samples, etc. etc.

But then again, it's the best grocery store to visit if you're a kid (or a kid at heart) and people make it a point to visit from across the country whenever they are in the area.

[0]http://www.stewleonards.com/how-it-all-began/

[fumar]

Agree sounds more like PR than anything.