I completely disagree. I've worked in supermarkets, and facing-across products seemed like the most asinine thing in the world.
If a product is out of stock, then the most immediate way to show that is by having an empty shelf.
Instead companies like Walmart prefer to face across products, and cover up barcodes. You would spend a good 10 minutes looking for something very specific, only to have an employee point at something similar, with an obscured SEL (shelf edge label) and say 'if we had them, they would be here'.
There was a big trend when I worked for Walmart to focus on stats like 'Basket Spend', and comparing regional scores. It felt like all the worst examples of AB testing.
There was quite a humorous one where 'key lines' were checked by visitors, so to counteract this, we kept spares of those lines in the back to put out when they visited, later taking them off and putting them back in the warehouse. The end result was these lines never dipped under the restock threshold and were always out of stock... except when they visited.
If a product is out of stock, then the most immediate way to show that is by having an empty shelf.
Instead companies like Walmart prefer to face across products, and cover up barcodes. You would spend a good 10 minutes looking for something very specific, only to have an employee point at something similar, with an obscured SEL (shelf edge label) and say 'if we had them, they would be here'.
There was a big trend when I worked for Walmart to focus on stats like 'Basket Spend', and comparing regional scores. It felt like all the worst examples of AB testing.
There was quite a humorous one where 'key lines' were checked by visitors, so to counteract this, we kept spares of those lines in the back to put out when they visited, later taking them off and putting them back in the warehouse. The end result was these lines never dipped under the restock threshold and were always out of stock... except when they visited.