Have you ever thought about your favorite grocery store's layout and how it might affect your shopping?

I will say, I'm a list-shopper. I make a list and pretty much can't think off that list. That in itself can mean I miss some sales that I didn't notice or plan for. But that's the downside I have to live with in exchange for being good at sticking to a list.

Anyway, I was thinking about my favorite store, WinCo, and how the different departments are laid out. There is only one entrance for WinCo. You pickup your cart outside and 10 feet away is the one entrance door. Inside a little vestibule at the entrance are a bunch of foods displayed, often seasonal foods, such as special bakery goods related to upcoming holidays. At the opposite side of this vestibule (and adjacent to the actual door opening into the store proper) is the dispenser for sanitizing wipes. As you pause to grab a wipe and clean your cart handle, you are surrounded by expensive bakery goods. Just inside the door, you're again prompted to stop and check the large cooler full of the sale meat of the week.

You may think you're now in the clear and you can go about your business of buying the foods you had planned. However, the entire 30 foot narrowish walkway to the produce section is flanked with displays of various packaged foods, most of which are a featured sale. I don't mind this section all that much, as this is where I discover when mayo, mustard, or canned veggies are on sale. But there are also sugary cereals, boxed cocoa mix packets, and packaged snack mixes along the walkway. I can imagine this is a difficult section to travel if you have impressionable kids (or spouses) with you shopping.

Now finally, you get to the produce section. Right there at the end of the packaged promotional foods walkway you are faced with a display of the most perishable fruit in the section, the berries. And just beyond the berries are the pre-cut fruits and vegetables, like fruit bowls/cups, raw vegetables and dip, and salad kits. You have to wade through those produce items before you can get to the budget-friendly produce like apples, bananas, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, onions, and celery. 

The produce section is crowded with barely enough room to navigate a large cart. I try to get what I need as quickly as possible and get out. I have noticed that I buy a lot of fresh produce. I wonder if the crowded feeling compels me to buy more than I would otherwise. And I wonder if this quasi-stressful feeling early on in the grocery shopping trip prompts me to over-buy additional food as I navigate other aisles.

Opposite the produce section is the seasonal section, with candy for holidays closest to the walkway and less impulse oriented holiday items (like gifts and decorations) further down that aisle. I try to ignore this aisle altogether.

Just beyond the seasonal aisle are the snacks, candy, cookies, cracker, soda aisles. I'm sure some corporate executive did a study to see if people put more items into their carts at the beginning of a shopping trip compared to later in the shopping. I would assume snacks, candy, cookies, and crackers are high profit margin items.

Finally, canned goods, pasta, rice, and ethic foods finish that side of the aisle. Across the way (and beyond the produce section) is the bulk section followed by the bakery. Like the produce section, the bulk bin section always feels crowded. You may think of grains and beans as the mainstay in the bulk bins. In fact, there are a lot of bins of candy, snacks, and treat foods. I'm a little surprised that the bakery is in a dead-end corner. It doesn't get much traffic, unless someone is deliberately looking for bakery goods.

Turning the corner is the meat section, deli, and condiments/salad dressings. You literally have to walk through the meat section to get to the rest of the store. Beyond the fresh meats are two large aisles of dairy/refrigerated foods. The milk and eggs are in the very back corner. But you can't skip the other dairy/refrigerated aisle if you want cheese, butter, or lunch meat. 

Wrapping around are the freezer cases. The first freezer you come across contains pre-made breakfast foods, a large section of pre-made breakfast foods. I can imagine a frazzled mother with young kids might be thinking about now "what can I get that will make meal prep easier and the kids will like?"

And now beyond the freezers are baking ingredients and mixes, cereal, tea and coffee, fruits and fruit juices, etc. I'm a little surprised that the boxed cereal aisle is not more prominently located. Boxed cereal seems like it would be a good impulse buy.

Just before hitting the checkout are pet supplies, OTCs, health and beauty, and household items. My guess is these items don't attract impulse buyers. You either need pet supplies or you don't. Ditto with vitamins or shampoo.

Opposite the checkout is commercial bread products, jams, and peanut butter. I see these items as last minute,"yes, we can always use more peanut butter and bread" items. 

And of course, at the actual checkout are individually packaged snacks, chilled bottles of soda, candy, and a few small toys, trinkets, and assorted small notions.

Just as you think you've survived all of the impulse/kid-attractive traps of WinCo, you have to leave through the one and only exit, which is lined with coin-operated games and soda machines. A mom with kids just can't win.

It always annoys me that I have to shop the produce section before canned goods, or heavy bags of sugar or flour, or large jugs of milk. All of the easily-dented produce can quickly become crushed by later items if I'm not careful to rearrange my items as I shop. 

A contrast to a consumer grocery store like WinCo is a business/restaurant supply store like Chefstore. The baking supplies are at the front of the Chefstore and the produce section is near the back. While Chefstore has end caps with sale items, I'm not sure impulse buying is a very large part of their profit strategy. Restaurant owners are more incentivized to keep to a list or stay within a budgeted amount. Their profits depend on minimizing waste and unnecessary purchases.

I still love WinCo for grocery shopping. But it does seem like the store's layout has been carefully designed to increase purchases.

At the grocery store where you regularly shop, is the produce section at or near the entrance to the store? How to you "manage" the produce put into your cart, if it goes in first, keeping it from becoming crushed by bulkier packaged foods later in the shopping? Would you ever consider doing all of the shopping in other departments first, then backtracking to produce to get those items last to prevent bruising?