https://www.realclearscience.com/ar...luence_your_buying_decisions_826380.html

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Why do shops like to move everything around? Well, it’s actually a simple answer. Changing the location of items in a store means that we, the customers, are exposed to different items as we wander around searching for the things we need or want. This ploy can often significantly increase unplanned spending, as we add additional items to our baskets – often on impulse – while spending more time in the shop.

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I hate it when grocery stores move stuff.
Home Depot, Lowes or Walmart do not do this near as often as Kroger.

My local Walmart "Re-Set" the grocery dept twice in 2021. Im a speed shopper, I go with a lsit and get what I need. Often I would leave my cart at the end of an isle and quick get the item(s) I needed (to avoid the chat sessions in the middle of the isle) I knew what was in each isle and go directly to them is the least amout of time I could...but then they reset the store and even the logic as to what was in each isle. My 30hr shopping moved out to an hr. off.
its all about getting thecustomer to spend more time in the store...

Yup, marketing exposure.
Kinda funny nowadays, when the shelves may be empty of some products, though that appears to be getting better.
I never thought cat food would become a rarity...

Which is why I hated going to Costco. Constantly moving items and not labeling aisles in the first place. I don't need to be on a Mystery Quest every time I go shopping.......

Or expensive! Our 13YO cat has developed irritable bowel syndrome, it seems I AND LOVE AND YOU Purrkey Turkey Pate @ $8.66/lb. is about all she can tolerate. Tough to find, finally signed up for a subscription for it on Amazon. I never thought about the expense of pets as more than petty cash before...

Local Lowe's just did it a month ago but they wouldn't dare do this in the lumber and construction supply area. Those guys are on a tight schedule for the most part and they want to go in get the supplies they need and back to work. Now the kitchen, home shelving and a few other "domestic" things they move those things more regularly. I went in for a small home shop trash can and spent twenty minutes searching and even a couple of employees didn't know where the new location was Oh and they rearranged the tool section so now instead of a bunch of short rows they have it so you now have to walk the entire length of one long row and then if you don't find what you needed you have to walk the ENTIRE next row too. More

Ours hasn't changed much in the last 20+ years except for the tire section and down the sides to move around services like photo lab, pharmacy etc. When the aisles shuffle around they're close enough to esaily find where things moved to.

As a twenty one year employee in the grocery business and a few years on the reset crew, I have moved items in many of stores.

As stated, there are many reasons to reset a stores layout. Marketing research is a big deal in the grocery industry, and they study YOUR habits closely. Have you noticed that dairy products, milk and eggs are in the rear of the store? 85% of shoppers buy dairy items on each visit. The path from the door to the dairy items takes you down the HIGH Impulse isle, Chips, Soda, or seasonal items and high profit items. They know that every minute they keep you in the store means extra $$ in their tills.
Also, many people do not know that the products manufacture pays the store to get their items at eye level, yours and your kids.

Happy shopping, and don't forget to take a list, those that don't spend more.

I never thought cat food would become a rarity...
My wife goes to 3-4 stores even the same brand store in a different location to find it all (each cat gets different food?)

I forgot to mention that the local O'Reilly's also re-arranges the racks, except for those on the walls.
I managed an AutoZone for awhile, and they did that too, about monthly; IIRC, it was called "planogram". We pretty much hated that...
But it was nice to get 25% off and score the occasional un-returnable opened/used item.
As for the cat food - yeah, they can be kinda picky - and generally seem to prefer kitty junk-food instead of the healthiest stuff.

Costco used to be a decent shopping experience. I see their isles are full of grab and go snacks, cheap clothing (tried a couple pair of their "work pants"). Impulse shopping trolling at it's best (worse).
Some things we buy there, yet even that, paper products are diminishing quality and raising prices, their canned coffee used to be decent and consistent. We shop there 4 or 5 times a year and buy and store everyday needs (paper cleaning supplies, some health+beauty products a little fresh produce and meat). Not much is as good as it was in the past).
I joke with the clerks occasionally when they ask "did you find everything you need?" I generally reply "everything but the golden egg", or other Easter egg hunt themed reply.
The real pita is the corporate stores that take a single item from a group, say bread crumbs, and stash it on the baking isle, instead of with all the other, fish fry, or cooking products. Usually these items are relegated the very top or bottom shelf.
I did not know how bad it was until wife had surgery in January and I was relegated shopping duties for 6 weeks.
I shop from a list and strive to stick to it. Prices in our rural area are really out of control.

I had a friend in the Carolina Canoe Club who wrote a book on Walmart.

Before my Dad got severely ill we read that book together and discussed it on long walks on Florida beaches.

The chapter about how Sam Walton agreed to try putting a drugstore inside Walmart and letting it lose money on purpose for several years was all about the $ value of getting people inside the store. Another chapter discussed selling children’s toys below cost.

My sister had a Costco membership and bought their generic version of the Glucerna “meal in a bottle“ for my stroke paralyzed mother, which turned out to taste good and cost less.

But every time I would go to buy it they had moved the location. I ended up taking an empty bottle and would go to the help desk and have them scan it and personally escort me to the new location. Then the local Costco store manager dropped this item from his store because his forklift drivers kept punching holes in the crated pallets and spilling the sticky/messy liquid on the floors.

My Dad worked as a meat cutter @ A & P for over 40 years. He taught us a lot. Never buy groceries first of month because nothing is on sale because welfare checks are in. New and improved means higher price and smaller size. Kids products are placed at their eye level so they pressure their parents into buying. Milk is in back of store so you have to walk by everything and will probably buy something you didn't plan on.

What really frosted my cookies about the resets was this happened during the early days and height of Covid. All we knew then was being around other people was not recomended and they reset the store causing people to be in close proximity to each other longer…