My other beef here is that this is just another way to further dumb down and make retail employment completely mindless.
To answer your question directly, one of the advantages could be that they can optimize the store layout better so you don't have to walk as much to find what you want.
(There are other disadvantages and advantages, by listing one of them I don't exclude the existence of others, but I can't cover everything.)
But stores do not want to do that. Stores know you want a pint of milk and loaf of bread. They put these two items far apart which means you need to walk past all that other stuff, this increasing the chance you'll buy something else.
Tracking technology isn't going to ne used to make my experience nicer unless that translates into more money fornthe store.
You, me, perhaps: what about other buyers, many of whom don't come to the store with detailed checklists? Their experience involves a fair amount of in-store exploration. For them placing milk and loaf of bread far apart might arguably be beneficial, because it makes them go past all of that other stuff they may forget to buy otherwise. Indeed, I imagine such customers are also easier to upsell to and more prone to impulse purchases of products that yield better margins—and that's part of the shopping process they visit the store for. Alas, people seem to enjoy buying things.
In short, I wouldn't be so confident that a store with more ‘rational’ layout would score better in the eye of the customer, even all else equal.
Disclaimer: I don't work in this area of business and this is purely my speculation.
Why isn't it most profitable for the stores to provide the best experience for customers in order to be most profitable?
Suppose there are two stores:
- Store A. Offers decent experience for the customer.
- Store B. Offers much better experience for the customer.
One would naively expect and hope that, given those two choices, more people would prefer to go to the better Store B and hence it would be more profitable. Hence the stores would try to do their best to serve the customer interests.
Why is it instead more optimal for stores not to optimize for the happiness of its customers?
Could it be because customers are not adept at recognizing which stores offer better experience for them, _and rewarding_ such stores by preferring them over other stores?
1) The most important criterion for me when looking for a store, is walking distance. I don't want to bike, or drive to the store. So the closest store is almost guaranteed to win my business.
2) The second most important criterion is the price. I'm still a student so I'm a bit careful with my spending. So if a store is much much cheaper, and not too much further, then I might go there when I have big errands to run.
3) I am pretty much insensitive to the layout of the store. I'm already walking 10-15 minutes to get there, so 30 seconds between milk and bread is no problem really
Anyway, my point is that in my case, the reason why the "better" store doesn't win is that I don't really care about the criterion used to define it as "better". So going back to your point, a store doesn't have anything to do to serve my interest other than being close to my apartment and lowering the prices. The rest is almost totally irrelevant to me.
The customer here is the product manufacturers and distributors, and the product is shelf space. In big box and department stores, strategic shelves like end caps and the area near the escalators are paid placements.
Ditto for the supermarket. Ever notice that in different chains, Coke or Pepsi is always either in the front or back of the store across locations? That's because they bid on the preferred location.
Retailers are focusing on stuff like this because most mass retailers have unsustainable business models and aren't making money at the core job - selling stuff to people.
Same thing with Google and TV commercials. For some people, privacy and security and saving time is a better experience, but for most, saving a few dollars here and there is a better experience.
Politicians = It takes time. Once they are elected terms last a long time and then people often have to choose a "new evil"... They can't just say welp, I don't support you anymore that'll solve the problem.
An Apple store is not laid out like that. I always see the big ticket items upfront and the accessories in the back. Most people don't impulse buy things that expensive.
You just walked past the shiny new things twice while you were there buying a cheap accessory. Maybe you noticed something you'll buy in the near future.
Meanwhile, the big ticket items are window dressing, and people who haven't bought an iDevice don't need accessories for one yet.
Are the two things mutually exclusive? Wouldn't it be better if they were one and the same? What can be done to make that so?