[pacificmint]

Case in Point: I really like Costco, but if I ever cancel my membership then it is because of how they seem to reshuffle significant parts of the store every few weeks.

I don't know if they think I will buy more if I run around for fifteen minutes looking for something, but man it's annoying.

They probably think of it as 'increasing engagement'. To me it's just wasting my time.

[TeMPOraL]

> They probably think of it as 'increasing engagement'. To me it's just wasting my time.

Here you've stated the fundamental truth about the so-called attention economy. The core tenet of it, is that money is made on friction. Attention is a finite resource everyone prefers to conserve for their own needs, therefore it needs to be stolen, so it can be redirected to ads, upsells, and other form of behavior manipulation.

That's why supermarkets are reshuffling stores so frequently. That's why so many websites are full of dark patterns and general annoyances. That's why ergonomics all but disappeared from software. Their inefficiency - wasting your limited lifespan in countless tiny ways - is how they make money.

[kortilla]

> That's why supermarkets are reshuffling stores so frequently.

Normal supermarkets in the US very rarely do this.

Walmart, Safeway, Whole Foods, HEB and all others I frequently shopped beyond Costco explicitly had very stable layouts.

It was literally a topic of news in my neighborhood when one of them rearranged for a remodel.

[rtpg]

That might be for other reasons, because according to a study I've seen, Costco basically runs their stores "at cost" and wants to just make money off of the memberships

(https://minesafetydisclosures.com/blog/2018/6/18/costco, though it's from 5 years ago so things might have changed)

[killjoywashere]

Do you mean the app or the physical store? Maybe I'm a luddite for going to the physical store but I go to 4 different Costcos in the Bay area with some frequency and a couple others in SOCAL and I find their interstore layouts different but their intra-store layouts extremely consistent over years. One in San Diego I can confidently say is consistent over a decade.

I barely use the app except for the card and an occasional lookup for something not available in store.