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I really dislike large stores. They are so overwhelming. I find the average grocery store in the US to be way too big. As a highly specialized retailer looking

by l72 3y ago

I really dislike large stores. They are so overwhelming. I find the average grocery store in the US to be way too big. As a highly specialized retailer looking for a very small space, it is incredibly difficult to find. Commercial property owners would rather keep their store fronts vacant than deal with 10 small shops instead of 1 big one. Something needs to change.

ofo8 3y ago
[flagged]
- WalterBright 3y ago
  I can't make heads or tales of what you wrote.
  - ofo8 3y ago
    [flagged]
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > never signed a contract Contracts are social constructs. Those are bad to base the fundamentals of a philosophy on.
  - ofo8 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - tiffanyg 3y ago
      Funny - I was just thinking* about some of what you've described. In my book, a great deal of what a certain group of predators and naive individuals consider "capitalism" is hollowed of its core. Hollowed of aspects those who truly understand and have faith and respect for capitalism - well-founded faith and respect - generally consider essential. People like Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are / were far closer to sound / faithful capitalists than most seem to be, lately: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/business/warren-buffett-capitalism.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/business/warren-buffett-c... But, one can go further, IMO: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-020-04521-5 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-020-04521-5 Those who stress the idea that "greed is good" set themselves (and, unfortunately, the rest of us, as well) up for misery and the kinds of instability / inequality / tightrope walk that may culminate in events like the Reign of Terror (one example that always comes to my mind, at least - a la Les Misérables, for example [but, so much more than 'just' that theatrical version of events]). * ~3 hours ago - and, not a common thought at all for me (though thinking about economics in general is common)
- AnimalMuppet 3y ago
  > First time in history we let the elders maintain social power via fiat wealth Yeah? Apart from "fiat", that's been true in many places for a very long time. Why does "fiat" make it different?
  - ofo8 3y ago
    Perhaps in specific cohorts. Most working class elders throughout history receded into the background once they became too old for manual labor. They weren’t pointing at a Schwab app trying to make us believe some number computed by logic and data structure that’s difficult if not impossible to verify, is the only justification needed for them to buy up all the land.
    - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
      > working class elders Societies with working classes didn’t have working-class elders. They had old workers. Poor, old workers.
  - wahnfrieden 3y ago
    Graeber & Wengrow explore this topic in more depth in Dawn of Everything
atrettel 3y ago
> I really dislike large stores. They are so overwhelming. I find the average grocery store in the US to be way too big. Some retailers actually intentionally make the stores overwhelming and disorienting since they believe that it increases sales. I worked at Walmart for one summer during my undergrad. We had to re-shelve a ton of items, moving them from one aisle to another. It made no sense to me. I asked the manager why we are doing this and he said that moving items from one location of the store to another forces customers to stay longer in the store and walk through more aisles while they search for the item that they want. They actually want to make it slightly difficult to find something since it forces people to spend more time in the store. The manager said that the data shows that the longer people are in the store, the more that they buy, so they try to make people spend as much time in the store as possible to increase the likelihood they make an "impulse purchase". (Granted, this seems to confuse correlation with causation, since time in the store isn't directly leading to people buying more stuff. Surely people who buy a lot of items take more time to get the items, but I personally think forcing people to wander around the store is mostly going to just annoy people, myself included. That said, there is apparently a large enough percentage of people who may buy more because of this, and some retailers make that apparent tradeoff to increase sales.)
- lastofthemojito 3y ago
  > Some retailers actually intentionally make the stores overwhelming and disorienting since they believe that it increases sales. Costco being a prime example. Not sure if all of the stores are laid out the same, but the ones I've been into can generally be described as "make it through a gauntlet of novel, ever-changing stuff that attempts to lure you into impulse purchases on your way to the back of the store, where the staples you came for are located, then make your way back to the front of the store, though another orgy of consumer products, and hey, you've already said no to the fleece vest and the shrimp shu mai so you might as well treat yourself to the 3 pound jar of chocolate caramels".
  - taftster 3y ago
    And, the isles are deliberately[] designed to be hard to see down. You can't just easily spy that 20lb Krusteaz pancake mix, you have to walk through all the baking isle products in order to find it. or so I've read, heard or maybe made up some fiction

by l72 3y ago

ofo8 3y ago

[flagged]

WalterBright 3y ago
I can't make heads or tales of what you wrote.
- ofo8 3y ago
  [flagged]
JumpCrisscross 3y ago
> never signed a contract Contracts are social constructs. Those are bad to base the fundamentals of a philosophy on.
- ofo8 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - tiffanyg 3y ago
    Funny - I was just thinking* about some of what you've described. In my book, a great deal of what a certain group of predators and naive individuals consider "capitalism" is hollowed of its core. Hollowed of aspects those who truly understand and have faith and respect for capitalism - well-founded faith and respect - generally consider essential. People like Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are / were far closer to sound / faithful capitalists than most seem to be, lately: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/business/warren-buffett-capitalism.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/business/warren-buffett-c... But, one can go further, IMO: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-020-04521-5 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-020-04521-5 Those who stress the idea that "greed is good" set themselves (and, unfortunately, the rest of us, as well) up for misery and the kinds of instability / inequality / tightrope walk that may culminate in events like the Reign of Terror (one example that always comes to my mind, at least - a la Les Misérables, for example [but, so much more than 'just' that theatrical version of events]). * ~3 hours ago - and, not a common thought at all for me (though thinking about economics in general is common)
AnimalMuppet 3y ago
> First time in history we let the elders maintain social power via fiat wealth Yeah? Apart from "fiat", that's been true in many places for a very long time. Why does "fiat" make it different?
- ofo8 3y ago
  Perhaps in specific cohorts. Most working class elders throughout history receded into the background once they became too old for manual labor. They weren’t pointing at a Schwab app trying to make us believe some number computed by logic and data structure that’s difficult if not impossible to verify, is the only justification needed for them to buy up all the land.
  - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    > working class elders Societies with working classes didn’t have working-class elders. They had old workers. Poor, old workers.
- wahnfrieden 3y ago
  Graeber & Wengrow explore this topic in more depth in Dawn of Everything

atrettel 3y ago

> I really dislike large stores. They are so overwhelming. I find the average grocery store in the US to be way too big. Some retailers actually intentionally make the stores overwhelming and disorienting since they believe that it increases sales. I worked at Walmart for one summer during my undergrad. We had to re-shelve a ton of items, moving them from one aisle to another. It made no sense to me. I asked the manager why we are doing this and he said that moving items from one location of the store to another forces customers to stay longer in the store and walk through more aisles while they search for the item that they want. They actually want to make it slightly difficult to find something since it forces people to spend more time in the store. The manager said that the data shows that the longer people are in the store, the more that they buy, so they try to make people spend as much time in the store as possible to increase the likelihood they make an "impulse purchase". (Granted, this seems to confuse correlation with causation, since time in the store isn't directly leading to people buying more stuff. Surely people who buy a lot of items take more time to get the items, but I personally think forcing people to wander around the store is mostly going to just annoy people, myself included. That said, there is apparently a large enough percentage of people who may buy more because of this, and some retailers make that apparent tradeoff to increase sales.)

lastofthemojito 3y ago
> Some retailers actually intentionally make the stores overwhelming and disorienting since they believe that it increases sales. Costco being a prime example. Not sure if all of the stores are laid out the same, but the ones I've been into can generally be described as "make it through a gauntlet of novel, ever-changing stuff that attempts to lure you into impulse purchases on your way to the back of the store, where the staples you came for are located, then make your way back to the front of the store, though another orgy of consumer products, and hey, you've already said no to the fleece vest and the shrimp shu mai so you might as well treat yourself to the 3 pound jar of chocolate caramels".
- taftster 3y ago
  And, the isles are deliberately[] designed to be hard to see down. You can't just easily spy that 20lb Krusteaz pancake mix, you have to walk through all the baking isle products in order to find it. or so I've read, heard or maybe made up some fiction