The reason I've asked about supermarket layouts is because we've been discussing the subject at work - which happens to be a supermarket, of course.
We currently have four supermarkets here in Rehoboth: Super G (where I have the pleasure of toiling), Food Lion, Super Fresh, and the newbie, Safeway. Because I generally do my shopping after I finish my shifts, I don't shop at the other three very often, but...
A couple of days ago, der B and I decided we wanted steaks for dinner. The bad news was that there weren't any steaks in the freezer. More bad news was that neither of us were terribly thrilled with the steaks in the Super G meat department. Der B remembered that they were having what sounded like a good saile over at Safeway, so I changed shirts (no sense in being too obviously from the competition) and we drove over.
This is about seven thirty/eight at night. When I left Super G, there were three checkers, a front end manager, a fifth person at the customer service desk, and people working in the fish department, in the deli, in dairy, a couple in produce, plus a few more restocking the shelves throughout the rest of the store. It's a little hard to tell if anyone is in the meat department, because their work area is closed off from view of the shoppers, something I would change if I could.
But when we got over to Safeway, I was a little stunned. There was practically no one working in the store! There were two checkers, but no one in the deli, no one at the bakery, no one at their (open) meat department...the place was devoid of staff! This is a store that opened last November, and they are floundering!
The next day, I mentioned this to our management, loyal spy that I am. They were just as amazed as I had been. How can you provide customer service if there is no staff around to help the customers? I mean, when I'm in the store either before or after my shift, if a customer comes up to me with a question or seeking help, even though I'm not on duty at the time I cheerfully help them, or if I don't have the answer for them I find someone who does know the answer, and I don't leave that customer until they are satisfied. That's just the way we do things at our store.
So, staffing at Safeway is clearly a problem. The other problem that I spotted was in how the store "felt." It was...backwards. Super G, Food Lion, and Super Fresh are all organized so that the customer enters the store and then moves in a counter-clockwise direction, moving up and down the aisles that said customer wants and ignoring the rest. Safeway, however, is laid out so that the customer enters and then moves in a clockwise direction. And this feels strange.
Robert, who is a management trainee, and I started to theorize why this might be so. What I came up with is that, as a culture here in the USA, we tend to go from left to right. We read from left to right. We alphabetize on our shelves from left to right. We look both ways, but more often than not look first left, then right. Even Sally, in Follies, finds herself not moving left and not moving right, in that order.
Now, take that left-first-orientedness in how people shop in a store. If you enter a store and proceed to shop in a counter-clockwise direction, looking left means you are looking towards the center of the store. If, instead, you proceed in a clockwise direction, looking left means you are looking at the walls of the store, and away from most of the goods being sold. Sure, clockwise is great if you've got great stuff on the walls, but there's this big expanse at Safeway between the meat department and the bakery that is nothing but pharmacy and, well, dull-looking wall.
So, my theory is that Safeway has hurt themselves from the git-go at this store, because of poor design. As a result, every time der B and I drive by, their parking lot is nearly empty (ours is regularly full). No customers means they cannot afford to pay their staff, so they cut back and what customers are there get miffed because there's no one there to help them, and don't come back.
I'm glad I'm working where I am. I like job security.
But I'd still open up our meat department, if I had my druthers.
