Supermarket Science
Posted on 26. May, 2007 by JC in Blog Posts
For the current (June 4, 2007) issue of Time, I wrote a brief item called Supermarket Science, about how grocery stores position their products. Because they face razor-thin profit margins, supermarket chains rely on data-mining experts to figure out the best shelf spot for Heinz Ketchup and most of the other 40,000+ products in a typical grocery store. The item was published alongside a story by my colleague Michael Lemonick called The Ewww Factor. Researchers, it turns out, have recently been considering the question of whether consumers are grossed out when kitty litter or diapers in their shopping carts touch packaged cookies and other food. Covering similar subjects in the past, I’ve spoken with Paco Underhill, whose books Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping and Call of the Mall: The Geography of Shopping are interesting explorations of similar territory.
