In late August, we put out a call to readers: Tell us about your biggest grocery store pet peeves.
Answers arrived for about week and then stopped. We published a story. That’s when we got hit with even more responses than to our initial request. So, we decided to do Part II.
Don't move the merchandise
Whereas the first batch of replies largely was about the annoying behaviors of other shoppers, the second set focused on the frustration caused by store merchandise being moved around.
In grocery industry parlance, they are called resets. Wegmans Food Markets carried out a number of them in 2022. Walmart did this year, although in the context of major remodels.
The goal, Wegmans said in a statement, “is to continually improve the shopping experience by organizing products in ways
that are more intuitive for customers, bringing related items together, and making room for new products and evolving customer preferences. We understand resets are a big change for our customers that may cause frustration as they learn the new layout of the store. However, we are confident that in the long run, it will offer a better shopping experience.”
Experts say there is more to the practice — namely forcing shoppers down aisles they normally wouldn’t travel, fueling impulse purchases and bigger sales.
That is how Deb Allen of Geneseo, Livingston County, sees it. She wrote to the Democrat and Chronicle to say that such changes turn quick trips into scavenger hunts. “They claim it’s ‘to serve you better’ — hogwash. It’s so you wander around lost — they hope you’ll do some impulse shopping while trying to find what you need. It’s pure greed.”
Allen has an ally in Ritaclare Streb of Rochester.
“My number ONE pet peeve regarding grocery stores is when they ‘reset’ their products,” Streb wrote. “I have an agenda when I shop and it begins at home as I make a grocery list, take it with me to the store and look to find the items I need located in the same aisles they were the week before, fill my cart, head to checkout and finally load everything in my car.
“This takes a specific amount of time which I have carved out of my day. I don't have the time, energy or desire to go on a surprise ‘scavenger hunt’ to find the items on my grocery list.”
Mary Nicholson of Webster also cited resets as a source of irritation. However, she appreciates Wegmans deploying workers with tablets to help shoppers navigate new layouts.
Tips for shoppers
What can shoppers do to make it easier on themselves, during resets and in general? Previously, Burt Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, a New York City-based retail consulting firm, offered these tips:
∎ “The best thing is to shop from 7 to 9 in the morning, after the night crews have finished stocking shelves,” he said — and that holds true for all supermarkets.
∎ Avoid shopping the first three days of the month when stores are busiest.
∎ Shop Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, when stores have the lowest customer counts.
∎ Google Maps offers general updates on how crowded stores and other businesses are at any given time. Just type in the address and scroll down the left-hand column. A “Popular times” chart includes live information on shopping conditions.
∎ Don’twait to stock up on holiday items.
Other complaints
We didn't just hear about changing store layouts. Here are some other issues local supermarket shoppers find exasperating:
∎ Store brands squeezing out national brands on shelves. “(They) may be cheaper but are actually inferior to top brands,” wrote Mary Sergent of Ontario, Wayne County.
∎ National brands being placed high on shelves, “where an aging, and shrinking, population cannot easily reach them,” Sergent wrote.
Beverly Daubney of Kendall agrees, writing that Walmart shelves “are built for people at least 6’ 5”! There are times I have to wait for someone tall to help me get something off a top shelf or straddle a lower shelf to see if can hoist myself up to reach it!”
∎ Wegmans’ new carts. The ones being tested in at select stores are still getting heat. “They are awkward to use — they often stick together in the store vestibule making it difficult if not impossible to separate them for use,” wrote Mary Jo Lanphear of Brighton. “The front tray blocks access to the cart below. As a short person, I have to walk around to the side of the cart to put items in it. At the register, the cart must be unloaded from the front, unlike the old, smaller carts with access to contents from behind the handle. The new carts are larger than the (old) small carts and less able to negotiate crowded aisles. I don't see shoppers using the phone caddies or the beverage holders, touted as perks for the new carts.”
∎ Garbage in carts. “When I get my shopping cart from the in store cart corral, I expect to be free of other people’s garbage,” wrote Dave Matthews of Palmyra, who shops at the Tops Friendly Markets in Walworth. “Many times I have seen carts with donut wrappers, store flyers, grocery lists, and a few times wallets or purses from previous users. The store management says the cart retrievers are supposed to clean them out, but little is done to make sure this happens.”
And here is a new one for us: Loud music over the PA system. “I go to the Holt Road Wegmans early in the morning (7 a.m.) to avoid all the oblivious shoppers in the aisles,” wrote Lori Ferguson of Penfield. “The store always plays the background music early in the morning with what I call the ‘SCREEMERS.’ It is blaring through the store at a high pitch and very unsettling early in the morning. Screaming a song is not singing. Shoppers need soft soothing music to do their shopping.”
Reporter Marcia Greenwood covers the grocery business and consumer-focused grocery news, as well as retail development, openings and closings. Send story tips to mgreenwo@rocheste.gannett.com. Follow her on X @MarciaGreenwood.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Grocery store pet peeves: Readers sound off on carts, resets and more
