h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Arrows on the floor indicating the direction of shuffle required by the management in order that the masses don't mess up the master plan.

W H Smiths had a re-vamp a couple of years ago and installed towering shelves that make a trip to buy ink feel like real life dungeons and dragons.

A late trip to Tesco involves shoving re-stocking goods cages around so I can get to the custard creams.

There are others.....

PP.

The nearest Smith and Tesco stores are probably 3,000 miles away from me, but there is an Ikea store within 20 miles.

Different stores turn me off in different ways. One way is sameness. Not long ago, someone devised the idea of blindfolding a random shopper and dropping him or her [usually her] into the middle of a mall department store like Macy's or Lord and Taylor or Nordstrom, and time how fast it takes the shopper to figure out which store it is.

Another way is setting up a store like a fort so that when you get past the cash registers you face an almost solid wall of racks. This makes me wonder if they really want shoppers to come in and shop. K-Mart was like this at one time. Maybe it still is; haven't visited them lately.

My local supermarket has two additional problems: 1. shoppers who manage to get in the front door and immediately stop, causing those behind them to risk bumping into them! 2. Once I get past these layabout shoppers, there are often people trying to get donations for worthy [?] causes or offering taste tests or trying to get me to sign up for home delivery of my local newspaper. It's like an obstacle course, and I'm barely through the door ! Look, I'm just a shopper who needs food, not the Spanish Inquisition. I'd like to feel welcomed, not given the third degree.

Kohl's is a pretty good department store, but their loudspeaker system irks me by using "Kohl" as a verb .

One problem is catering to one type of customer [the female shopper] and largely neglecting just about everybody else. For that matter, I don't think that female shoppers have a reason to be all that satisfied either. Most of the malls in my area lack drugstores where people can buy sundry small items like pens, cough drops, tissues, etc. Suppose you're shopping with a child who gets a cold, and you forget to bring tissues? [Okay, all malls have restrooms where you can swipe some toilet paper, but who is going to think of that in an emergency?] Only one mall in my area is anywhere near a grocery store, and even that is accidental. The Target store that's there has a grocery department. But every single mall in my area has at least one of the following: Brooks Brothers, Macy's, Lord and Taylor, and Nordstrom, and Bloomingdale's. Most have four of the five. I realize that Macy's is the only one that most UK researchers might have in their area. There must be comparable stores in the UK catering to high-end, fashion-conscious women, with a tiny space set aside for upscale men.

Stores that have well laid-out aisles that let wheelchairs manoeuvre easily, then staff and managers put piles of stock and dump bins around to ensure the disabled can't get into their shop.

Thanks, swl! You've reminded me of the narrow aisles in my local supermarket, made narrower by racks of stuff that get put here and there [often with no real realationship to what else is in the aisles.

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Ask h2g2' to 'Miscellaneous Chat'.

Stuff being moved about so you can't find it where you expected.

You go looking for a thing only to find that it has been moved from a place where everybody can find it to some dusty, cob-webby corner that nobody ever visits.

Like, er, er, oddly, I can't think of an example right now......

PP.

Ask h2g2 is for questions, always has been. The clue's in the name

I know what you mean about Ikea though, I deliberately ignore the arrows and wander about all over the place taking short cuts and going against the "flow" whenever I have to go there

You anarchic rule-breaker you.


Oh, wait...

Yup

It sure looked like a question to me. It appeared to be asking the community what they felt were the annoying features of shop layout. Indeed, it solicited some interesting responses, in particular paulh's in post 2.

Only a grammar pedant would see it otherwise.

Looked more like a (justified) moan to me, one I can fully get behind.

Just reinstating the Subject Title


lil xx

So, let's bring Misc Chat back to an interesting life then

I like finding the shortcuts and back-alleys of IKEA and other stores, actually. Tickles my brain, I suppose

Another thing I hate about Ikea, is that some people absolutely adore them. They think that the company can do no wrong, and if you just don't happen to adore them, then you're obviously a deluded fool who probably also poisons kittens for fun.

I like IKEA, generally, but they certainly can get things wrong. As can any company...

I'm just waiting for David Cameron to turn up and tell us how much he enjoys eating takeaway pasties.

" it solicited some interesting responses, in particular paulh's in post 2"

Thanks, Icy.

I think I agree with every comment posted by everyone so far. That's unusual for a thread.

That would cause the immediate death of the Pasty industry.

Mind you in the case of Gregs that might not be a bad thing.

When I worked at a rather large, rather well known, international advertising agency in London, all the rather pretentious marketing types didn't go to Pret or Eat for their lunches, they nipped around the corner to Greggs!