Why Does Costco Rearrange the Isles?

[Ben]

Okay, just got back from a Costco run, and ONCE AGAIN, they have completely rearranged the store. Costco is the only store I go to where they do this at least once or twice a year. Anyone know what the business model is for this drives-me-crazy activity?

Is it nothing more than figuring if I have to go up and down every isle to look for stuff that I might buy more? If so, it has the opposite effect on me. I'm a get in - get out shopper. If I have to spend extra time looking for stuff, I'm way LESS likely to buy something not on my list.

[K Frame]

Why?

Because they want to foil people like you. No store wants laser-beam shoppers, the ones who run to the exact section to get exactly what they want.

They want you to walk around the store actively LOOKING at stuff.

Hey, wow, I didn't have that on my list, but you know, I NEED a gross of Bush's Baked Beans, or you know, my home office doesn't feel officey enought, but I bet that stand water cooler will help!

Even if it has the opposite effect on you, a lot of studies on the subject going back to just after WW II show the same thing -- impulse buying rules.

[client32]

Wow, I must need sleep or something.  I read the title as Why Does CASTRO Rearrange the Isles?  That got my attention.  I think Mike has the correct answer though.

[El Tejon]

They sell islands there?!?!  Wow, what a cool place.  I want one with a firing range.

Retailers shift merchandise to different aisles so people will have to meander about and see new things and (maybe) buy more stuff.

When I worked at the fishing/hunting counter at Galyan's, we were continually lifting and shifting plastic worms and whatnot.

[roo_ster]

The absolute worst in "You must go through all the ailses" is Central Market.

They make you snake through 1/4 miles of everything to get the jar of peanutbutter.

On the upside, they have an entire wall devoted to cheese.

[BozemanMT]

I used to do this work for a drugstore chain
it's actually they go thru and take all the biggest sellers and/or the biggest payments for placement by the vendors and move them around so they are easiest for the consumer, etc
and bigger sellers get more facings and so forth.
There were plans for all types and regions.

and EVERYONE hates it, people used to come up all the time to me asking me that question "why did you change my store?"

[Azrael256]

On the upside, they have an entire wall devoted to cheese.

Forget the cheese, they have an entire wall of beer!  Tasty beers from all over the world.  It's like a candy store... but with beer.

Ok, the cheese is actually pretty good, but only if it goes well with the beer.

[Ben]

move them around so they are easiest for the consumer, etc

I remember reading somewhere there's a whole psychology thing about putting items the store wants to sell at a certain height and area to make them "eye-catching". This I can see as it makes it easier on the shopper, versus the full rearrangement thing.

Nevertheless, ever since I read that I always look for stuff at "have to stoop down" level to look for a better deal.  

[Ben]

No store wants laser-beam shoppers, the ones who run to the exact section to get exactly what they want.

Actually today a couple of women were cracking up and made a comment to me about being a "typical guy shopper" because they saw me walk my cart past the maple syrup and pick one up without even slowing down.  

[crt360]

On the upside, they have an entire wall devoted to cheese.

It's hard to beat a wall of cheese.  I haven't shopped at a Central Market in a long time.  I will definitely buy stuff I don't need there (maybe not the Gaspergoo at $8.00 a lb.).  I've been going to the low-budget, poor side of town H.E.B. where the fancy cheese is Kraft sharp cheddar.  They do have a great variety of tasty Mexican foods, sauces, etc. that you rarely find in more upscale stores.  It might be dirtier and little more run down, but stuff is cheaper and they don't move the aisles around on you (some lowdown might get pissed off and bust a cap in someone's ass if they did).

[Iain]

It doesn't drive me crazy, it makes me think I've gone crazy. I'm Mike's 'laser beam' shopper sometimes, but most of the time I'm operating on autopilot when I'm shopping, so I'll be looking for green tea where the pasta now is. The green tea is now where the Weetabix used to be. Haven't found the Weetabix yet, but then I've never ventured to where the ladies underwear used to be, so I expect I'd find it there if I wanted it.

The moment where you find yourself thinking that you must have just walked down the wrong aisle is one of those 'Who is the President and what day of the week is it?' moments.

[K Frame]

Some years ago the Safeway near me rearranged everything so that the aisles were broken down into meals. Canned vegetables were all over the place, depending on whether they thought they were a lunch item or a supper item.

I wanted kidney beans. They weren't with the residual vegetable aisle where the other beans were (I guess the ones that didn't fit a meal classification).

They weren't with breafast crap.

They weren't with lunch crap.

They weren't with dinner crap.

I finally broke down and asked the assistant manager where the (*$&)(*&$^)*(&$^ kidney beans were.

Oh, they're with pasta sauces. Apparently they think people make chili with pasta sauce. BUT WERE THE GODDAMNED CRUSHED TOMATOS WITH PASTA? HELL NO! THEY WERE WITH THE DINNER *expletive deleted*it!

I dropped my basked in the aisle, said "This is a $%_)&%_)*(%& fiasco, I can't find a goddamned thing in this store anymore, it's taking me nearly 3 times as long to shop. You just lost a customer."

And I walked out. Prior to that moment they were my primary store. Now I only go there if I know EXACTLY what I want and EXACTLY where it is.

[spinr]

Did they have any Cosckets in stock?

[Guest]

I always grab the stuff from the very back of the shelf. It's the newest.

Drives the stockboys crazy.

[lupinus]

for the same reason the pharmacy is in the back of the drug store and the meats in the back of the grocery store or the counter is i nthe back of the auto parts store.

They want you to have to walk past as many products as possible so you will be more tempted to buy things you didn't plan to buy.

[USP45usp]

I'm a laser beam shopper myself.

If I can't find it within 5 minutes of walking into the store.

I walk back out again.

When they tried that crap here at a main store that I go to all the time I kidnapped a stock boy to lead me around to everything that I wanted.  Supervisor came over and asked why I had done that, I told him, they haven't changed it again since then.  

I think there was a rash of kidnapped stockboys that week

[m1911owner]

What I want to know is, why do stores put the SMALL sizes at eye-level for someone who's six-foot-plus, medium below that, and the LARGE sizes at knee level???  

[BozemanMT]

not that this really has anything to do with rearranging but more about being frustrated.
I was remodeling a home with a friend and we were in home despot and had a good cart worth of stuff, probably a couple hundred dollars.
We get in this line and these guys have 2 carts worth of stuff, mostly plumbing fixtures.
they slowly ring up one item at a time, one by one, on and on, ohhh, price check here, price check there, finally after like 20 minutes they finish.
THEN and only then do these two guys pull out the checkbook and start writing a check.
Then of course we need a managers approval because it's over $500.
Then, they walk two feet and the guy says "hey, you charged us for a ball valve with check adn this one doesn't have a check valve.
she starts talking with them again.
WTH?

We looked at each other and walked out of the store, cart sitting there everything and walked across the street to lowes

I hate home depot and lowes isn't much better.

[Guest]

How many people here have asked an electronics place clerk where the DVD rewinders are?

[Ben]

They sell islands there?!?!

And 10 hours later, Ben catches his goof. I'll leave it for posterity instead of editing.  

[Car Knocker]

they slowly ring up one item at a time, one by one, on and on, ohhh, price check here, price check there, finally after like 20 minutes they finish.

Have you ever noticed that if you buy 20 of somethng - 1/2" copper couplings, for example - they have to drag every one of them over the scanner - they can't just do a quick count and times 20 - Nooooo.  And if the sticker on one of them is messed up and won't scan - do they grab another and just scan it twice?  Nooooo, they have to try and manually enter the number.

I really miss my favorite old-time hardware store - Newbert's in downtown Sacramento.

[Sindawe]

I can understand the rearrangement of the store every now and again, 'specially on the items that are highly desirable or novel.  Mixing things up might increase the impulse buy of items the shopper would not have otherwise selected.  There is also the "Because I can" factor to take into account.

The thing that really gets to me though is the stores that don't have directories.  If I want to browse and wander for whatever catches my eye, I'll do so.  DON'T make it a scavenger hunt for me to find the flava beans, tofu and goldfish crackers!

[HankB]

No store wants laser-beam shoppers, the ones who run to the exact section to get exactly what they want.

That's why grocery stores keep dairy products far from the cash registers.

I've found that some Home Depots tend to mix things up. Take caulk, for example. They have a section - usually near the paint - that has several varieties of caulk.

But walk down the lumber aisle, and they'll have a display of some variety of caulk that ISN'T near the paint - it's unique, and off by itself.

Continue on to the electrical stuff, and you guessed it, ANOTHER variety of caulk!

This isn't confined just to caulk, it can be just about ANYTHING. And the people working there are pretty much ignorant.

Lowe's isn't much better . . . I wanted to get some "Deftoil" to refinish a Garand stock. Lowe's had a brochure, indicating it was available as a special order . . . but I had THREE Lowe's associates "helping" me, and NOT ONE of them was able to figure out how to order it.