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Attention, West Roxbury Roche Bros. shoppers: They've changed everything around
By adamg on Sun, 07/10/2016 - 4:13pm
State Rep. Ed. Coppinger alerts us:
@universalhub you may want to put out a #frenchtoastalert for @Roche_Bros #westroxbuy - they moved all aisles around everyone is lost
— Rep Ed Coppinger (@edcoppinger) July 10, 2016
Wait, worse than the time they moved the soda aisle? Some of us in the UHUb bunker are still smarting over that, and it's been years now.
@universalhub @Roche_Bros much worse every aisle or moved or under construction - must have heard 10 people complaining about it
— Rep Ed Coppinger (@edcoppinger) July 10, 2016
@universalhub @edcoppinger @Roche_Bros It is. Went last night and it was mayhem...well, slight confusion. Change is scary.
— Daniel A. Guzman (@DGQuoVadimus) July 10, 2016
@DGQuoVadimus @universalhub @Roche_Bros added about 20 mins to my shopping
— Rep Ed Coppinger (@edcoppinger) July 10, 2016
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Comments
I know in
the scheme of life this isn't important, but it's annoying when you know your store and can no longer run in for 4 items without running all around. Paper towels in aisle one? Really?
At least I saw peanut butter in the bread aisle. I guess that makes some sense.
I'd love to meet the grocery store consultants who recommend changing everything around every year. (I know this is to expose you do more products. All marketing.)
Roche
Agree with the above. My local Roche did a huge move a few years ago when they refurbished the store, and it was like a treasure hunt looking for my items, which i used to know where they were.
Getting ready for beer and wine?
I assumed it was so they could make room for beer & wine.
It's pretty funny. People in every aisle I went down kept saying "I can't find anything."
Trader Joes
As if it's not hard enough to shop at Trader Joes with people having damn free sample picnics and label-reading bookgroups in the isles, the one near me moved everything around to add beer and wine. It was ultimately worth it to be able to buy beer and wine there!
They're still fiddling with the layout. But at least they only shift one shelf unit of stuff at a time nowadays.
The Marshall's in Stoneham
Is the absolute worst for this. I go there about once every six months, and the layout is always different.
Share
Remembering the times this has happened in the Back Bay Star/Shaw's/Star, I learned to look in other people's baskets and ask where they found their stuff. Exchanging information helps everyone, as does being flexible.
Me: "Hi there! Do you remember where you found that oatmeal?"
Her: "Next aisle over, between olives and toothpaste. Have you seen any spaghetti?"
And if you fail in your quest for rice cakes but find cookies instead, it's not your fault.
forget Remember
Star/Shaws/Star is in the middle of doing it again. Moving things, but aren't updating the aisle signs...
Grab your camera
These things can get rather amusing:
You're Welcome!
I just came from Pru Shaw's, and was able to assist a fellow shopper in the checkout line, who saw my "nutrition" bars and needed to know where they had been moved to (one aisle over, opposite end of the aisle). The current move is still in progress, judging by the empty shelves. BTW - Tiny Trader Joe's on Boylston likes to rearrange their freezer cases every few months, with no apparent purpose other than keeping customers on their toes.
Grocerymon Go?
Grocerymon Go?
My Stop & Shop...
... was organized by an idiot.
When they rearranged the aisles, they put frozen foods in the middle of the store. Now whatever end you start from, your frozen foods are beginning to melt by the time you reach checkout. Brilliant!
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
About
half to three-quarters of the grocery stores I've been in are set up like that- frozens down the middle.
I get around the country a bit, too, as far as grocery stores are concerned. It's a pretty popular layout.
Popular With Whom?
I hate it. Have you heard any good reasons for it? I'm truly interested in finding out why someone would like it that way.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Efficiency
They do that for two reasons:
1. a single line of utilities rather than longer ones around the sides - makes it cheaper to build and cheaper to maintain
2. climate control efficiency - it is cheaper to keep things in the center of a building cold than it is to keep things on the edges cold. In some places the cold food units are integrated into the overall plan for cooling and heating the building.
Understood
Those reasons are fine for the store, but not so good for me when I have Italian Ice starting to melt by the time I get it home to my own freezer.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
You could save the frozen food aisles for last
and hit the checkout from there, since you're in the middle of the store, but that's not as interesting for a UHub post.
OK
So, you read my first post, right? I said that no matter which side of the store you begin on...
Geez. If I want to backtrack, sure I can end on frozens. But if I want to go in a linear fashion, like any normal grocery shopper...
Skip it.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
I hear you
Since I don't drive by choice and walk or take the T everywhere, I have come up with a fairly effective way to keep frozen stuff from defrosting before I get home, let alone leave the store. I have one of those insulated bags that zipper shut made expressly for cold stuff. I got mine at Whole Foods awhile back, but you can find them easily elsewhere. Before heading out to shop, I pop in a few frozen gel packs I have around in case of random bumps & bruises. Anything frozen goes straight in the bag. When I check out, I put the frozen stuff first on the belt. Once it's scanned, it goes right back in the bag. Works like a charm! :-)
Good Idea
Thanks! I'll have to remember to do that.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Really?
That doesn't make sense. If the coolers are next to a wall, you can insulate that side; if they're in the middle, you're taking in heat from all sides. It's also not how most of the markets I go to are laid out, and they've mostly been completely rebuilt recently, or are newly built. I'm sure the negative heat load of the coolers is taken into account when heating and cooling the building, but because the ambient air is always going to be warmer than the coolers, it makes more sense to isolate them to the extent you can. If you have them cooling air on all sides, that air must then (in the winter, at least) be warmed up again.
Part of overall climate control
Heat loss is far less if the coolers are centralized and back to back to back. Helps with the AC load that way.
They can't be insulated like you say - the compressor heat has to go somewhere. If it is a central somewhere, it can be removed and used to heat the building or removed to prevent building heating.
Impulse buying
Retail and grocery stores spend a lot of effort arranging and rearranging products often to confuse shoppers so they'll spend more time in the store and hopefully engage in impulse shopping.
Shopping
Too many newly minted MBA's out looking for stuff to do. Useless degree.
Part of a larger phenomenon
You'll see it in any business. New manager joins the company and immediately begins changing things -- even things that are working smoothly. Makes them feel like they're making a difference. Gives rise to a whole bullshit consulting industry, including things like "rebranding."
Suggestion: Stop & Shop in
Suggestion: Stop & Shop in Dedham (and maybe others) has a sheet you can pick up as you walk in that lists everything in alpha order with the number of the aisle in which such items are located. Roche Bros. should do something like this quickly. I never miss Roche Bros' occaisional 5 for $25 meat sale. I hope they haven't stopped that.
In other breaking news - summer started a month ago!
Hard to take all the 'clutching o' the pearls' here seriously when Roche Bros started reordering the aisles over a week ago.
Where the heck have y'all been?
Great headline, Adam
Aisle bet you checked out a couple other before making that selection.
Olive oil next to produce.
Even though bottled, the olive oils could be next to produce for olive oil once opened is like produce subject to going rancid relatively quick.
Who Moved My Cheese??
Like in the book, people will figure it out.
Wait, worse than the time
Not to mention when they stopped labeling it "Tonic".
Moving the cheese and everything else
I discovered the new Roche layout yesterday for the first time. I assumed it was to try to increase sales; but selling lawn chairs and other non-food items in aisle 1 seemed bizarre to me. Anyway, while it's not the end of the world to have to figure out where stuff is newly located, some of us choose stores to shop in partly because a) we know the layout and b) it's a *logical* kind of layout. A store is better if it is more efficient for shoppers; the less time I have to spend hunting or waiting in line at the checkout, the better. And — love the idea of an alpha-list of where stuff is! Or even an app. After all, it is 2016...