this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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I've always assumed it's to keep you browsing. You might notice something you'd otherwise usually walk straight past.
That and they monitor how people shop and create heat maps of where people move. If one part of the store is underused and others are overused they might shuffle around and see if they can improve on the cold parts by putting them where people go or on the way to the stuff people actually want to go to.
shouldn't be allowed
It's their damn store, they own the place. Why shouldn't it be allowed?
Because it's scummy and inconvenient.
Yeah I'm big on shutting down anti-consumer practices. I don't want to restrict people's ability to shift around their inventory, but if you're heat mapping and psych consulting to boost the time people are lingering, it toes a line.
It's inconvenient, but not scummy. Every business tries to increase its bottom line and this is not high up at all in the scumminess scale. And a heat map can be created without actually monitoring people but just by looking at sales vs placement. It can be done in a completely unobtrusive and privacy respecting way.
Just to be clear, I also get upset when my grocery store changes things up. It throws our shopping routine completely out of whack and causes more people in the store because everyone spends more time looking for their regular stuff.
It's certainly not high on the scummy scale, but I would argue that any practice meant to control people's behavior in order to increase sales is, as a matter of principle, scummy.
Because it's psychological manipulation and it's damn disgusting ! Forces people to buy things on impulse and keep polluting by overconsumption.