Monday, October 1, 2018

Crazy way of doing business

You know life's going crazy when the adventure of shopping in Walmart's recently arranged grocery aisles becomes an interesting distraction.

I've always heard that stores rearrange their product placement from time to time to keep shoppers from just going straight to what they want. And they want you to have to pass by things you might not have thought about on the way to get what's on your list.

Still, it seems like past rearrangements have made more sense than this most recent one.

Gene and I first noticed the changes about three weeks ago when we were shopping. I couldn't find the gum (now on a shelf facing the first row of refrigerated items, including pizza), and after that I think we spent some time searching for coffee and peanut butter.

The next week, we were on a hunt for Nestle's Quik, which had always on the aisle with the coffee. It wasn't there, nor was it with the cereal. We finally found it with other breakfast items, such as granola bars and maybe oatmeal -- all more than an aisle away from the breakfast cereal (which now faces snacks such as chips). What kind of logic is that???

Today, my search for bacon took me from the middle of the meat section (where the bacon had been near other packaged meat products along a wall), all up and down the refrigerated meat shelves and floor units, to no avail. I also looked among the frozen breakfast foods, but didn't think it should be there. I ended up asking the clerk at the self-service checkout. He apologized for the confusion and said bacon is now with the eggs. Of course! Bacon and eggs. Why didn't I think of that? As I later told a man who was looking for the butter  (which previously was near the eggs, but now was nowhere in sight): The reason I didn't think to look for bacon near the eggs was because that's never where it had been before!  Besides, none of the other moves  I've seen made that much sense. Meanwhile, I was able to help the man search shelves for butter, and we spotted it on a far wall where string cheese previously had been sold.

On my way back to where the bacon and eggs were, I passed a woman wondering out loud where the chocolate drink mix was. I said, you mean like Nestle's Quik? She said yes; it used to be by the coffee. I said right, but it's not there any more. Let me think of where we found it last week. I was pretty sure it was with cereal or other breakfast items. She said she had looked with the breakfast bars, so she went to check the cereal aisle. A few steps later, I found the Quik next to packaged oatmeal (if I recall correctly). I just said in a slightly raised voice, knowing she was in the next aisle, "I found it!" She said thanks and came back.

As I headed to the front of the story after getting the bacon, I noticed people looking up and down, seemingly dazed and confused, along each aisle. Fortunately, everyone seemed to be in reasonably good spirits despite the inconvenience.

But how can Walmart or any other company think it's a good thing for customers to be wasting time wandering around looking for things that are regularly on their grocery lists?

The clerk at the self-service check out said these are not local decisions. "Call 1-800-Walmart," he advised. I probably won't do that. Maybe I should.

Instead, I'll just add it to the string of business developments I've encountered in the past month that have been surprising at best and unsettling at worst. (I may write more about that in a separate post.)

For today, I'm grateful I could maintain a good spirit and be of some help to fellow shoppers.

No comments:

Post a Comment