Grocery store are all about psychology. They know you will enter and turn right thus going in an anti-clockwise direction, buy items at eye level and if they say 3 for $3 you will buy 3 even though it is priced at $1 each if you buy one or two. Proteins and dairy and eggs are in the back while impulse items are in the front.
Clearly they decided they will sell more if they make there store into a sheeple pen like every other supermart.
The two Randall’s (Safeway) I shop at most frequently have the split-aisle arrangement. Maybe it’s a Texas thing.
The local Raley’s (California) has the center aisle. And the produce section is front and center.
Oddly, the pack-your-own supermarket we shop at has a center aisle that runs front to back.
It really isn’t an issue for me since I eat a diet low in carbohydrates so I shop the perimeter. Produce is on the right as I enter, meat across the back, and dairy on the right coming out. I haven’t been in a middle aisle in months. That’s all canned and processed stuff anyway. The produce, meat, and dairy requires infrastructure that make it expensive to move around so it stays put.
Yep, that’s the way to do it. Don’t go in the middle aisles.
If they want to make it easier for the disabled and elderly, they’d monitor who takes the scooters for a ride. I know they can’t, but dammit, when I take Mom shopping, there’s never one around. I’m looking at you, Krogers and Walmart. At Target the scooters are parked by security. I know those guys can’t actually do anything, but somehow it seems there’s always a scooter there.
Tampons. 
Yeah, I often see kids playing in them. WTF? No one says anything. Except me, of course.
The members of the hard working paper industry appreciate your support, and would like to take this opportunity to note that adult diapers are almost as comfortable as ordinary underwear and a good deal more convenient, especially on road trips. Give it some thought.
This The big grocery store next town (and 50 miles r/t) over used to keep all the organic/gluten free items in one place, near the doors and registers. I could shop and be out fairly quickly. Now those items are scattered all over the store. Beyond frustrating. So I order my GF items on-line, and hit the local family owned grocery for most everything else.
I’m a disabled man who has frequented many different grocery stores over the past many years and I am oblivious to any of this stuff being discussed. I use a wheelchair and I’ve never experienced any noticeable difference in the accessibility or ease of use between various stores. Yes, some may have narrower aisles than others (I’ve noticed this in Kroger stores) but nothing that would impede a wheelchair. And as far as traversing thru crowds of tightly packed people while using a wheelchair, hey, that’s what elbows are for. 
The OP is concerned about elderlies and handicaps people , I was health aide and I had to give my clients sponge baths and get them dress. Most of my clients were wipes out after that and I did all the work . Wait until you’re 70 or 100 yo if you even live that long.
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Would it do any good at all to speak with the store manager?
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Of course. Be sure to point him/her to all your other “I’m so outraged at your …” OP’s.
None of my Krogers ever had a “center aisle.” They just have the 2 end? aisles that run the length of the store- 1 from the bakery past the booze past the checkouts down to the pharmacy. The other from the produce past the dishes, snacks, meat, etc down to the milk. Then all the aisle aisles running perpendicular to those.
They always seem to have plenty of scooters and way too many extra wide carts and those damn kid car carts that no one can maneuver. Maybe a center aisle would be good for people like me, who aren’t (physically) disabled but would like to be able to walk somewhere without being run into by little kids and hen-pecked dads pushing a huge ass cart to buy a box of cereal.
I once pointed out at the helpdesk in a local Tescos they might improve profits by moving the vegetarian ( non-frozen ) group and the ‘Free From’ group and the exotica foreign group ( stuffed vine-leaves, halva etc. ) in one handy location, since the sort of person who likes one generally might like the others.
No change. Supermarkets aren’t about convenience or profit as much as permanent institutions that run on inertia.
I’ve seen free wheelchairs positioned in British supermarkets, but never seen a patron using one.
That would be Asda.
They do that to rub it in to those pensioners who watch as the kids whizz around the place on the mobility scooters.
As they slowly push the small trolley, using it as a walker.
But that make do, don’t complain, generation are dying off, and my bolshy generation are getting older.
A change is coming people.
Ranks of mobility scooters, kids and fatties yanked off by their hair if they dare to ride.
I will be there, probably a motorized wheelchair by then, and I will cackle like the old bag I am.
I’m having trouble imagining this too. Every store I’ve ever been in is set up pretty close to what you’ve linked to, with maybe an odder shape at one end of the store for the bakery.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?ie=UTF-8&source=android-browser&hl=en-GB&q=sainsburys+aisle+layout&gfe_rd=cr&ei=MrQnVZ6hMvL88wf8gYG4Dw#imgrc=Xd0vP7adf7e6yM%253A%3Bundefined%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fcityofsound.typepad.com%252Fblog%252Fimages%252Fsainsburys.gif%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fuclue.com%252F%253Fxq%253D2195%3B592%3B826
That’s my mum’s local supermarket, that is common.
Are they low-carb? I know they’re high-protein only a couple days a month.
In many stores, I’ve see a small section right up in front that carries milk, eggs and such for a quick in and out trip if that’s all you need.No more traipsing all the way to the back wall to lug a gallon of milk back to the front again.
Since Baby Boomers are now becoming senior citizens, I’m hoping grocery stores adjust to this fact and offer online groceries with delivery or shopping assistance.
It’s gotta be tough for some elderly, who have joint pain or other difficulties walking whose kids/ family live clear across the country and left them with no help.
This is going to become a bigger issue as the percentage of seniors increases.