User Experience – Supermarket

There are two supermarkets around my place and I visit there around twice a week. So, let’s see my grocery list (basically essential items for everyday’s living) … yogurt, juice, fruit, canned food / soup, ice-cream, meat, eggs, vegetables, bathroom tissues, beer, newspaper, magazines etc. etc.

So as a typical supermarket wanderer, I spend around 20, 30 minutes in the shop and seems to me the ideal “line up” of the goods in the aisles should be:

  • Non-frozen food and products (e.g. canned food / soup, eggs, bathroom tissues, beer, newspaper etc.)
  • Fresh items like meat, vegetables, fruit, juice
  • Lastly, frozen food like yogurt, ice-cream etc.

The idea is rather straight forward (at least to me) because I don’t want the ice-cream to melt, or yogurt get warm, or the fresh food get “un-freshed” in my 30 minutes shopping time.

But then, how these two supermarkets placed their products ?

  • From the entrance, you will first see ice-cream freezer … then, fruit, then vegetables, meat, yogurt …
  • In fact, the goods closest to the cashier are the bathroom tissues …

And further complaints … why can’t they put TV foods (i.e. chips, cheese balls 😎 just next to the beer section ?!

Lesson Learnt: Oh yes, I reckon even a supermarket needs to improve the “Usability”.

Author: Michael Yung

Michael possessed over 30 years of experience in Information Technology with focuses on complex application development, database technologies and IT strategy. He also spent the last 20 years in Internet technology, eCommerce development / operations, web usability, computer security and Public Key Infrastructure technologies.

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