Programmer Humor

Supermarkets maximizing profit: put ads everywhere and hide the most commonly bought foods!

Many supermarkets already do things like putting the milk and bread at opposite sides of the store, so you have to walk through the whole store to get both. You'd often be walking past the end caps while doing so, which are essentially ads (companies pay to have their products displayed at the end caps)

Just in case you're not just satirically listing things that are already awful;

Supermarkets increase their "retention" by limiting signage to keep you wandering and avoid "just get that thing and go" shopping. I don't know how common this is, but when I was a kid the major supermarkets had long lists of what items were in each aisle, plus highly visible signs in the aisle to show exactly where each category was. Now days at the major chains those in aisle signs are completely gone, and the categories have been whittled down to a few major categories; most products aren't represented on the sign at all e.g. you have to assume "cake mix/decorating" are in the same aisle as "flour".

Unskippable ads on all pumps are absolutely a thing that are getting more popular. Mobil is particularly bad for it in my experience.

It's frustrating because it's all done by people. Like if a volcano erupts you can't really get mad at it. It's just physics stuff. But all of this? People are making these choices. People made of meat and bone. Like, you could find the decision makers at Google who decided to shit up their product and kick them in the junk.

Supermarkets already optimise many things, products with lower margins are at the bottom in aisles, and all the junk food or cheap liquor is next to the cashier.

Also, ever been to IKEA? That thing's a labyrinth