My local store also has the “same stuff in a bunch of different places” mentality. Fresh bagels are usually scattered in at least 4 different places. Etc.
Why is the toilet paper with the diapers and sanitary napkins on one side and the paper plates and garbage bags on the other?
The only thing I can think of that really gets to me in supermarkets is the location of the frozen foods section. I shop for a lot of groceries at a time, and I live in Phoenix. Granted, they keep it a nice temperature in the store, but I would like to be able to pick up my frozen foods last. But they put everything frozen right smack-dab in the middle of the store, so you get your frozens in the middle of your shopping. Gargh.
What I hate is thos elittle “stick out into the middle of the aisle” displays, put randomly around- causing traffic jams. I occ accidentally knock one of these down- and then I don’t do anything about it (like I would if i knocked something else down).
However, from the grocers side- a huge “pet peeve” is dudes who decide they don’t want something & just put it back as the cruise the aisle- and it is something that needs to be refrigerated or frozen PLEASE don’t do this, guys! Either they throw it away- an all our grocery bills get higher- or they replace it after it has got to room temp- leading to food poisoning for one of us.
What drives me absolutely crazy is all the stuff they put in the midle of the aisles, not the end caps - that is bad enough but there is enough room to get two carts through and maybe have someone walk through the middle of them and then they go and stick a cardboard display of jello or cereal or salad dressing or some other random product right in the middle. Then some lady with her four pre-school age children will hit it from the other side effectively blocking traffic for all but one lane so that traffic is completely blocked so that she can referee an argument over what kind of fruit snacks they will be buying for next weeks snacks.
Or there will be people on both sides of the aisle and all I need to do is walk by to get one flippin item so I either have to squeeze by excusing my self all the way or walk all the way around…I refuse to by anything that is stuck out in the middle of the floor. Find a shelf for it or I won’t buy it! Aren’t supermarkets big enough as it is?
Yours too? Mine’s got the in-house baked bagels at the bakery, some “premium” brand at the deli, Lenders bagged “fresh” bagels are on the side of an endcap on a freezer aisle, and Orowheat bagged bagels are in the bread aisle.
How about cheese? My grocery story has it in at least three distinct places:
-
Shredded cheese, American cheese, and common blocks (Cheddar, Pepperjack, Mozarella) are with refrigerated dairy. Next to yogurt and butter.
-
Grated Parmesan and Romano are with the pasta sauce.
-
Expensive cheese (good Parmesan, Brie, Camembert) are by the deli and fresh vegatables section.
And I’m sure I’m missing one here.
Condoms. They’re NOT on the isle with soap, shaving stuff, other bathroom stuff, washing powder, kitchen stuff (and, oddly enough dogfood, but that’s something else.) I don’t know where they ARE, because I couldn’t find them.
Speaking of which, I hate Boots’s layout. (USAnote: Boots is a large supermarketesque pharmacy (=drugstore?)). I’m generally looking for men’s deodorant, shaving stuff, nail clippers or condoms. The shaving stuff is in the men’s section. Everything else is hidden under ‘skincare’ or ‘perfume’ or something equally unlikely. Fortunately I’ve been able to find all the stuff at supermarkets now.
Every store I have ever shopped in has the canned beans in a different aisle from the other canned vegetables. What makes beans so special that they can’t sit with the other vegetables? They’re always shelved near the taco shells and salsa. I guess the idea is that the only use for beans is Mexican food.
Actually, speaking of canned beans, we have 1) canned baked beans next to the dried beans, 2) refried beans with the Mexican food, 3) canned Progresso beans in the Progresso section by the Italian food, 4) canned Goya beans in the Goya section, near the rice, 5) normal canned kidney beans, etc. in the canned vegetable aisle.
Invariably, in UK supermarkets - flour is at one end of the store, perhaps near the bakery - along with other home baking items, but not sugar, no the sugar is with the tea and coffee, at the other end of the store, even the soft brown sugar, which is most commonly used for baking.
Would it kill them to put the sugar with all the other home baking stuff? Or even to put some in both locations?
Manduck, that’s precisely the complaint that I was going to make. Canned tomatoes, too, are apparently not a canned vegetable. Actually, in the supermarket I go to, only the Goya beans can sit near the Mexican food, and at least once I ended up buying them, too, even though they are more expensive, because I could not find where they’d hidden the “American” canned beans.
This store has also put the peanut butter and jelly in the bread aisle. I suppose that does make some sort of sense, but it isn’t where anyone expects to find it!
Ice cream cones are never near the icecream. Also, I want all the non food stuff (bathroom stuff, cleaning stuff etc) down one end.
The “meat aisle” in Indianapolis drives me nuts–all of them, or nearly all of them. I’m in a horrid hell of over-trimmed boneless vileness suitable for clueless housewives who think that “cooking” consists of whatever name-brand putrescence they clip out of Ladies Home Journal or similar magazines aimed at the self-lobotomized.
First Aisle:
Batteries, Cutlery and Baked Goods. Figs and Vegetables, tableware, seafood. Getting Mad…
Second Aisle:
Canned Vegetables and Fruits. Spam, Salt, Milk, Ale, Cereal and Books. Really Lost
Third Aisle:
Detergents, Fire Wood and baking. Hand Tools, Diet Beverages, DVD’s and Bread. Giving Up
My local store puts half the sandwich toppings in the ice cream section because people put it on ice cream. I don’t eat ice cream, so I can never find the toppings…
My complaint about one higher end store near my home is not that the stuff is illogically placed, but that the shelving is twisted and turned so it’s like shopping in four or five different stores. The produce and deli sections are sperated out by a couple walls, the staple non-refrigerated items are next running from front to back of the store, the refrigerated cases are perpendicular to those, the healthfood and wine are between the cashier and the frozen foods and perpendicular to frozen foods, and shampoo, soap and medication has it’s own, forlorn and lost section at the front of the store, almost as an afterthough. It drives me batty if I forget something because you have to navigate half the store to get it.
Not to sound strange, but what sandwhich toppings are people putting on ice cream?
This reminds me of something a bit different I’ve always wondered about - why do green olives come in clear glass jars and black olives come in cans?
The store I go to also spreads olives about the store - the expensive varieties are in the deli section, the cheaper brands are in with the canned vegetables, Greek olives are in the cheese case next to the feta, and there are some green ones next to the cocktail fixings.
I don’t know about being allowed to drink coffee, but they certainly shouldn’t be allowed to make it.