Posted on 03/14/2012 9:09:16 AM PDT by Altariel
Supermarkets are designed to promote impulse buying by leading shoppers through a maze of aisles.
But something incredible has happened since the recession. Shoppers are going only to select aisles. And this is killing store margins.
UBS cites research from Kantar Retail:
Consumers are not going down most aisles at the frequency they used to. Today, the more common way to shop is to only go down select aisles. 50% of consumers shop this way, which is a 6% increase since 2008. Consumers are highly focused on specific sales and specific coupons when shopping conventional supermarkets. This strongly suggests consumers are cherry picking grocery stores.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
So, in tough times, people are more selective about their buying choices? Gee, what a revelation.
So, in tough times, people are more selective about their buying choices? Gee, what a revelation.
I found I do that now. I don’t do it for financial reasons but because the stores have gotten so big that only a few aisles actually have anything I need to buy. Most contain crap I simply don’t ever want.
Our local Kroger store is under going a complete make over and finding anything is more like a treasure hunt. Beer is where the bread used to be and bread is already in its second location in a month. Clerks in the store don’t even know where things are!
I have done this for years. When I go into a store, any store, be it for food or clothes or a hammer......I go for what I need and get out. I don’t like shopping anyway so I stay out of the other stuff.
More people go in with a pretty specific shopping list in mind if not in hand, and don’t do a lot of shelf browsing.
We go around the edges of the store and get the used food. The stuff with the orange Manager Special sticker.
We hit the used bread, swing to the used veggies, grab the dented cans of veggies in back, grab the used milk, and then clean up on the used meat.
We grabbed about 20 cans of deodorant, usually $2.89, a buck apiece, used.
Save 1/3 to 1/2 buying used.
"Mountains of crap" points to another problem. Some stores around here (I'm look at you, Kroger) have started putting more and more and more displays in the aisles and just leaving piles of boxes on pallets as a "display" in the middle of a wide aisle. It is getting tougher and tougher to shop, so I just skip aisles which don't have what's on my shopping list.
My term for the situation is K-Marty, from the original "just pile it up and customers will trip over it and buy it" store.
Smaller stores have done this for years. They change things around so you will look at other things and possibly purchase something that you really weren’t looking for.
Go with a list. Eat before you go.
I remember a public service announcement on Armed Forces TV in Panama, a little cartoon of groceries bopping through the aisles of the Commissary singing, “Don’t shop when you’re hungry! No, no, no!”
I hate it that that still sticks with me...
Colonel, USAFR
I’ve accidentially knocked over some of those aisle obstacles. I just leave them scattered on the floor. They are annoying and a hazard. Kroger is the worst for it. They also have hanging advertising everywhere every few feet. It’s like shopping a flea market anymore. I go to Safeway now and they store near us is new, clean, and much better. They don’t have very many aisle obstacles and no haning ads.
We go around the edges of the store and get the used food. The stuff with the orange Manager Special sticker.
We hit the used bread, swing to the used veggies, grab the dented cans of veggies in back, grab the used milk, and then clean up on the used meat.
We grabbed about 20 cans of deodorant, usually $2.89, a buck apiece, used.
Save 1/3 to 1/2 buying used.
Just a thought.
Usually stores are set up with what’s fresh and edible in the shape of a U..I’ve always shopped the U formation mainly because everything in between is mostly processed foods.
$5.16 for a jar of mayonnaise last week! Yep, it’s the change I was hoping for! :^( Every time I go to the grocery store I’m flabbergasted at the price increases.
Oh, just wait. On this morning’s radio news, they revealed how people are coping with the higher gas prices. Are you ready? They’re DRIVING LESS. I kid you not.
Oh, just wait. On this morning’s radio news, they revealed how people are coping with the higher gas prices. Are you ready? They’re DRIVING LESS. I kid you not.
Forgot my smiley in prev post just in case you missed my kiddin” ;)
Good for you. We have the same sense of humor I see. Damn! I thought I was unique with that “used” bit. I could never call a loaf of bread “day old”. Was always “used bread”, or “used cake”. Anything on the “blowout” table was always “used stuff”.
Mrs. RQSR, and myself are the type that have specific purchases, and that’s what we go in, buy, and get out. Always have. Browsing the stores is NOT entertaining to us. Shopping for groceries is a job neither of us relish.
They are also shopping ONLY sale items and stocking up when items are on loss leader status.
FACE IT, We are in a massive Depression caused by a Democrat housing bubble and perpetuated and sustained by Obama and his economic illiteracy.
There are 2 million FEWER workers than when Obama took office, yet more than five million net people should be in the work force. The real unemployment number if the labor force was the SAME as 2009 would be 11.3%. If the labor force added the additional five million new additions it would be close to 14%. THESE ARE U-3. U-6 is actually close to 25%. For men it is far worse than at ANY TIME since 1933.
If not for government welfare programs, there would be riots in the streets and possibly outright revolution.
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