On 25/1/07 17:59, in article , "K"
wrote:

Bob Hobden writes
I often wondered why supermarkets use so much packaging until I
recently saw a well dressed middle aged lady picking up produce,
inspecting it, and then throwing it back, and I do mean throwing. The
broccoli head exploded as it hit the others in the box and goodness
knows what the avocado was like when she finished with it. I've also
seen a number of people throwing produce into their trolleys lately and
compounding it by throwing heavy stuff on top, they seem incapable of
placing anything gently, just too damn lazy perhaps or conned into
thinking they have a busy and demanding life.

Both our local supermarkets compound the problem by placing their fruit
and veg near the entrance, so either you are constantly rearranging your
load to keep them at the top, or you pick up the heavies first and then
struggle against the flow to get back to the veg.

Don't all supermarkets do that? I don't think I've ever been to an ordinary
supermarket that doesn't have all that 'healthy' stuff at the entrance. I
know they're arranged on some psychological factor or other but I'm assuming
that the veg near the front is to make you feel that you're doing a 'good
thing' by shopping for your family at that store. The essentials like meat
and bread and fish are at the back of the store, thus luring you further and
further in. Apart from the Tesco superstore at Lee Mill, near Plymouth,
which has electrical and household goods to your right immediately as you
enter and the fruit & veg stuff a little over to your left, I don't know of
another variation.
As to the light/heavy stuff, again it's something everyone moans about. You
get all the squashy stuff at the beginning and at the end of the shop you
pick up bottles of wine or water etc. and then when you unload the trolley
and reload your car everything simply repeats itself. The supermarket
experience is horrible but I will say that when I order online, I spend a
lot less than I do when I visit personally. I can't help thinking that one
day they're going to figure that out.

--
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South Devon
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