Customers of Sainsbury's Bell Green will have noticed the store has been gradually changing the location of stock but not immediately updating the location signage above the aisles. This is an initiative Sainsbury's is trialling to help address the UK's obesity crisis. The Disruptive Orientation Location Trial (DOLT) entails moving and mixing the location of stock on a regular basis to disrupt customers' familiarity with the store layout.
No longer will regular customers be able to quickly navigate the store and plan their route to efficiently select the items they want. Instead, customers will arrive at an aisle that had previously contained, for example, breakfast cereals, only to find it now contains toilet rolls, and so begins their exploration in search of their desired items. The aim is to send customers on a bewildering journey, testing their desire for treats to breaking point until finally forcing them to prioritise their search for essential items and give up looking for the biscuits.
One customer, Flora Opil, commented "At first I was exasperated that I couldn't find my regular items and had to wander all the aisles in search of things I used to be able to find straight away. But then I saw the sense of concentrating on just finding the essentials and only picking up treats if I happened to come across them in my expedition around the store. The decision to delay updating the location signage was a stroke of genius and greatly enhances my inability to find anything. It hasn't completely prevented my consumption of high calorie treats but at least I can no longer find chocolates, crisps and biscuits in a single visit. And, of course, I use up more calories trekking around the aisles."
The frequency of relocating stock has yet to be finalised.
Disorientation tails off after a few visits, as customers of Sainsbury's Forest Hill branch will understand, after their branch was renovated and reorganised last summer. The frequency could be as often as every six weeks, in order to keep customers on their toes.
Anti-obesity campaigners say the scheme doesn't go far enough as it only influences purchases made in-store and not orders placed online for home delivery. To combat this, Sainsbury's are exploring the feasibility of installing a foreign language program in their online ordering system, so that they can display high calorie items in a regularly changing selection of foreign languages. This would emulate the disorientating in-store experience and also help to address the decline in modern foreign language learning. The company is also in discussions about integrating fitness apps into Sainsbury's customer accounts to identify whether the scheme is reducing customers' calorie intake and, for in-store customers, how many extra steps they are walking. By installing the app Sainsbury's will leave cookies on your phone, giving you something to nibble on your extended foraging expeditions.
A spokesman said the outcomes of the Bell Green trial will be reviewed and, if successful, will be introduced at Sainsbury's Forest Hill to test it on a smaller store layout, with a view to extending the scheme nationwide by 1st April 2025, meaning customers would need to walk between multiple stores to get their regular groceries.
No comments:
Post a Comment