The Target app is the best that I’ve seen for customers. It won’t plan your route, but you can search for items and it will tell you the aisle, location within the aisle, and stock level for any item at your local store.
Kroger app does all that, plus sorta plans your route. You make your list head of time and then you can sort the list by aisles ascending or descending; or store layout or store layout reversed; or by departments; depending on which side of the store you go in or if you want to save cold items for last. Its not completely without fault but overall works great once you get the hang of some of the apps complications.
It’s very annoying in general. I’ve got a visual disability. Meaning I see about 20 percent.
When shopping, I know where all of my most used items are, and where the general category of products is. But if they move things around too much, it’s really exhausting trying to find what I need. And no, I don’t really want to bother staff to ask where things are; I just want my shopping done quickly with as few annoyances as possible.
Imma be honest, hate shopping, so I always hated when they rearranged. I literally make mental map and plan most optimal route to gtfo asap from whatever shop I have to suffer through so making that plan moot irks me.
I suspect that a big part why they rearrange at least once per year is precisely because they don't want people speed running their grocery shopping. When you know exactly what you want and where to get it, you stop looking at all the other products they offer.
I used to literally try to speedrun grocery shopping. I wanted to be in and out in the least time possible. I'm older and lazier now. Plus, now I listen to podcasts, so I'm somewhat distracted while I tend to the task. Maybe that's the biggest difference and the real reason I've settled down a bit.
My oldest son is autistic and has taste and texture aversions that are powerful enough that he will sooner starve himself than eat something that isn't right. So when we find something he will just eat? You better believe we are buying as much as our fixed budget can support. There's a mighty rage to be had from us when something he does eat gets changed or discontinued.
Between my ADHD and the amount of different places we go for groceries I can never remember well enough where anything is to get mad about them changing it. My wife though has finally gotten to the point where the music they play on the radio in the grocery stores is actually getting good which was her sign she's getting old.
Yeah if grocery stores had played The Cure and The Smiths back in the 1980s it wouldve blown my mind. But they sure are playing it now. Grocery stores seem like 2-4 decades behind in music selection. or maybe it's just that '80s music was the last time good music was generated through the music industry, and that's why grocery stores stick with it, 80s music. But I hope for the sake of the peace of mind of future generations 20-40 years from now grocery stores aren't playing whatever bizarre noises the current "music industry" has been generating lately
Just remember, you either have to run the entire market anyway, or the thing you are looking for wasn't on the right place anyway. So no reason to be angry.
Yeah I kinda like taking my time shopping at a grocery store. Got my audiobook in and just relaxed looking for what I need and I don't mind finding new stuff, yeah I know they design it that way.
I think I've read previously they do it because if they rearrange they can get you to walk past stuff you wouldn't have previously seen as you try to find the stuff you want. I.e. it increases sales.
I used to know where every single thing I wanted in Walmart was. In and out very fast. Then they put up signs saying they're remodeling and they moved entire sections, then moved those same sections to completely different parts of the store within a few months, then they put everything behind locked cabinets so I have to wait around for an associate to unlock a cabinet everytime I need shaving cream. Who the fuck is stealing shaving cream. Now I shop on the app and do pickup because who the fuck has time for that shit
God both Safeway and Costco rearranged recently and I am indeed mad.
(Note: they do this on purpose so you have to wander around the store and end up buying more stuff because you spend more time and walk down aisles you normally don't)
I tend to avoid grocery stores who do that. But in Belgium at least it's a known strategy that half the grocery stores use to make you spend more time looking for stuff.
Luckily there's also a store that avoids it because they want to save time of their employees and customers. So if use their app to make your list and select the location you're going to, the app will arrange your list to be in the order you encounter everything if you follow the lines on the floor.
Our local Walmart did a full scale reorganization recently and we can't find ANYTHING anymore. Even the employees are confused when you ask them for help locating something and the app hasn't updated yet.
yet another reason i'm quite glad to live in sweden, our stores actually respect you as a customer: they rearrange like once per year at most, and are generally designed such that the exit is visible from the entrance and easily reachable, and you can just grab what you need and be out of the store in minutes.
Especially nowadays with self-checkout and some chains even letting you use your phone for checkout, it's an absolute breeze.