The idea being it reduces the number of staff needed to run the store because now we can restock shelves uninterrupted.
Of course, that’s not what’s happening. Instead of being asked where our canned mushrooms are, we’re now being asked where aisle 31 is, and we’re having to take extra time to find out what their actual question is.
Because there are only 14 aisles in the store.
Oh, and I actually like being asked where stuff is, because it breaks up the monotony of bringing out rollcomp, rotating, stocking, facing up, putting back rollcomp, repeat until lunch.
About the “wanting” you to roam. I don’t know if it’s practice everywhere, but my old supermarket reshuffled their sections every year or so (not majorly, just a little but) to make you look again for the product you wanted and encourage you to try out new stuff you hadn’t noticed before. While I felt it was a hit manipulative, yes, supermarkets want to you search for items.
I did this job once long ago… but it has more to do with the companies and how much they paid to have a certain amount of space and at what level, and to add and remove new products… but yeah sometimes they just moved a whole section to another isle that wasn’t fun…