Supermarkets in the
USA ca. 2001 allocate
shelf space according to complex and varied
deals with manufacturers and distributors, to the point that exact amounts of space (
x inches) are specified in contracts at the
main office. These allocations are constantly changing as new products come along, old ones
fall out of favor,
media hype helps or hurts, deep discounts are offered, and so on. A result of this is that
some hard-to-define or multi-category items get put into
entirely different areas from time to time.
An example might be those plastic 'roasting bags' where one places
meat and
spices in a sealed bag in the
oven. Do those go with the spices? the
gravy mixes? the
butcher counter?
These categorization problems are invariably solved differently by different companies, and are the source of most of the confusion.
Some stores print maps, but those are usually only the
big picture and details like the example above are lost.
Perhaps someday there will be
kiosks with simple
search terminals, like at some
bookstores (i.e.
Borders Books) where customers can type in
queries. This would be a great additional
revenue stream for the supermarket owners, as they could sell
screen space for image ads, offers from competing
brands, etc., much the way the "instant coupons" that are printed at the
checkstand work.
Another potential solution would be to have wireless transmitters in the stores that would beam maps and complete indexes (plus the aforementioned ads and offers) to customers'
PDAs. Perhaps one could enter a shopping list and have the PDA beep as one wanders the aisles to alert that an item on the list is nearby.