groceries, turning red

[calimac]

Does anyone understand how supermarkets are laid out? Why are soup and nuts, proverbially the opposite ends of a spectrum, usually on the same aisle? Why is some of the food on one side of the store, and some of it on the other, with the non-food items between them? Is it in hopes that customers will pass through the non-food aisles and pick something up? Toothpaste and cold remedies, let alone shampoo and batteries, are not usually impulse purchases.

It took me a while to find something not usually on my shopping list, Jello. In my family, as probably in many others, this is pronounced "yellow". There are many kinds of yellow. My favorite is green yellow.

Generally I like citrus-flavored things. And grape. My distaste for artificial berry (and cherry) flavoring is so strong that for years as a child I assumed I'd hate berries and cherries themselves as well. (In fact I don't.) It also probably led to my aversion to the color red. I always picked the green and yellow and orange candies and left the red alone (unless they were cinnamon, yum). Red supposedly ought to be my favorite color because my astrological woo-woo is ruled by Mars and Mars is red, and it's the god of war and war spills blood and blood is red, at least when it gets spilled, but in my mind the association of red with blood is minuscule next to its association with artificial berry flavoring. Ycch.

Comments

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

Why is some of the food on one side of the store, and some of it on the other, with the non-food items between them? Is it in hopes that customers will pass through the non-food aisles and pick something up?

Yup. Search for "supermarket layout psychology" for details :->

Toothpaste and cold remedies, let alone shampoo and batteries, are not usually impulse purchases.

I don't think they're necessarily hoping for impulse purchases for these items, but people might have been thinking they'd pick up those sorts of items at a nearby drug store but then realize they can get them at the supermarket.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

I, on the other, despised the color green for the longest time because I associated with artificial lime flavor, blech! I was well into my twenties before I realized that my dislike of the color green was based on the flavor association rather than the visual color. Now I love wearing green (it's quite a good color for me, at least in some shades), and I also love real limes, but I still despise artificial limes.

[irontongue.livejournal.com]

Take a look at Marion Nestle's book What to Eat for all you could want to know about how supermarkets are laid out and why.

[a-blue-moon-cat.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an interesting read. Anything similar for department stores?

[irontongue.livejournal.com]

Oh, what a good question. I have never heard of such a book, which doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Search Amazon? Google book?

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I have that same distaste.

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

What's really interesting is that they put things like milk and eggs and meat all the way in the back so you have to walk past *something* else to get to them.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

According to some of the articles on market layout I've now read, some supermarkets are now also putting milk in the front, having found that people would rather buy milk in a convenience store, if they're not doing a larger shopping, rather than walk all the way to the back of a supermarket.

[scribblerworks.livejournal.com]

I've stopped trying to make sense of supermarket layout. I just try to learn where "my" store (well, stores actually, as there are two I generally patronize) puts things. What I hate is when they reorganize! Bah!

[a-blue-moon-cat.livejournal.com]

Your first paragraph makes sense to me. Stores are all about marketing, and good PR, so to speak. I've learned a lot about both over the years. Note what you see when you first walk into any store. In places like grocery stores and Target/Wal-mart types of stores, note what's on the end caps. Notice also that traditionally grocery stores and the low-end dept stores (Wal-mart, etc) had aisles that were vertical to the front and back of the store. These would take the shopper quickly to the back of the store to the meat and dairy sections. Of course, these areas, like the frozen sections, should be shopped in almost last. Fresh produce, like fruits and veggies, might need to be the last. However, I have noticed a new trend of making the aisle horizontal to the front and back of the store, which causes one to wander back and forth through the store, as though one is lost in a maze; thus one spends more time in the store, and of course, ultimately spends more money. Just what they want, of course. ;)