Gregory's Server@ct_bergstrom this reminds me of a fact my niece learned in business school: Costco makes shopping at their store time-consuming on purpose. They want to discourage customers from just popping in to pick up an item or two, because large shopping trips are more efficient and therefore more profitable. The time you spend waiting in line for a cashier at Costco is built in by design.
EDIT: As per @kyozou, the part about waiting in line is wrong. Thank you for the correction!
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@ct_bergstrom this isn't exactly what my niece told me but it's close... @ct_bergstrom Thinking more about this I'm not sure it's quite the same. Costco customers keep coming back, so... Perhaps making people wander the whole store forces them to discover "deals" that on the whole they end up being happy with, so ultimately maybe both Costco and its customers get what they want?  @jik @ct_bergstrom Supermarkets are incredibly devious and time wasting by design. Things from moving the locations of things regularly so you're forced to browse. The attempts to manipulate us to squeeze every last penny is exhausting. (I wonder how much energy it actually costs us and how much of our lives it consumes in hours?) @fifilamoura @jik @ct_bergstrom The milk is at the back to force you to walk through the store even when you just need a gallon of milk for the kids. @jik @ct_bergstrom The first part of what you wrote is more or less correct; the second part is not. Costco absolutely does not want customers waiting in line at the checkout. At some stores there’s even a giant board with cashier scores for speed. |
@jik Wow. Do you know if this is written up anywhere? It's a fascinating example.