h a l f b a k e r yPoint of hors d'oevre
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grocerystore app that shows where items are located in the store
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The stores would never go for it. They arrange the stores
to make you walk in a certain route in order that you pass
promotional displays and impulse buy items. |
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But it could be built independently of the store, and
updated crowdwise. |
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Just make the app so that, once on each visit, it
asks you to image the barcode of the nearest
product at some randomly chosen time. Using GPS
and a database of barcodes, it could then build a
composite store layout and keep it updated from
everyone's inputs. |
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It sounds delightful, but it could only lead to lawsuit, like
the whole 'taxi app' fracas that's going on right now. You
might be surprised how far commercial entities will go to
protect their ingenious methods of duping us into spend
more money than we need to. |
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I don't see why stores would oppose it. You'd still have to
walk over and get the item. They already post signs with
the categories of item in each aisle. You can always just
ask an employee where anything is. |
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Such an app would probably increase sales, because people
would be able to find more of what they want to buy.
There's one local grocery store I try to avoid whenever
possible because they have a bizarrely cryptic way of
organizing stuff—often different brands of the same item
are found in different parts of the store. Granola bars
might be near breakfast foods, snacks, or health food—or in
all three places. This isn't corporate policy, just the store's,
because other stores in the same chain have figured out
how to organize things sensibly. The result is that when I go
to the confusing store, I often give up on about a quarter of
the items on my list, and thus spend less money. If I had an
app to tell me precisely where each item is, it wouldn't be
a problem. |
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Store managers routinely re-organize the store
specifically so you don't know where things are. It's
done deliberately to increase "impulse buying." |
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what it does for me is increase the impulse to buy somewhere else. If I don't know where stuff is anyways why not get some new scenery ? |
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Suddenly the store installs GPS jammers in aisles 1-12 and
in produce. |
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//Store managers routinely re-organize the store specifically
so you don't know where things are. It's done deliberately to
increase "impulse buying."// |
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Do you have any evidence of this—either that it happens, or
that it has the intended effect? Most of the stores I frequent
have had the same product layout for years, and very seldom
move things around. Even the poorly organized grocery store
has only changed its layout once in about a decade, when they
remodeled the entire store. The layout is confusing, but it's
consistently so. |
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The bread and butter, so to speak, of supermarket chains is
repeat customers. Hence the “loyalty” programs they use both
to track your purchases and market to you long term, and to
increase your odds of returning to the same store by providing
coupons, reward points, etc. Anyway, impulse buys tend to be
the small items at the register, rather than scattered
throughout the store. I can't see any logical reason why they
would want to alienate their loyal customers by making each
repeat shopping experience unfamiliar. |
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Or you could just have them deliver. |
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//Do you have any evidence of this—either that it
happens, or that it has the intended effect? // |
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I worked in a couple retail stores when I was in
high school. We changed the entire store layout
every season, and about every 2 years the store
was completely reorganized and redecorated.
Management said they didn't want customers to
get bored with the layout, and re-organizing made
it look "fresh," even when we were just moving
the same stock around on the shelves. |
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Yes, some stores (like Cub Foods) will give you a
map of their layout. |
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I learned of this practice as the night manager of a 7-11 in
'99-'00; yes, even small convenience stores rotate stock
like this, and it does work. We spent more time on endcaps
and promotional displays (such as the ever-popular
'beeramid'), but to the bored eye of the graveyard shift
manager it was evident that moving stuff around caused
even the most entrenched regulars to alter their purchase
habits. |
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