Is My Local Wal-Mart Messing With Me?

Like thousands of other small towns across America, we have a local Wal-Mart where most people do most of their shopping. Love it or hate it, it's the only store around that has a complete array of groceries and household items.

Last week when I went, I noticed they were moving some things around. Nothing major, I just thought that maybe they were doing some cleaning or putting down some new flooring. Tonight I went and about half of the store was moved around, and I could tell they were working on even more changes. All of the paper goods were at the back of the store where the baby section and shoes used to be. The baby section was shoved in with the kids clothes and the shoes were stuck out in the middle aisles. There were other changes like some of the snack items moved out so that the beer and liquor could be there instead of with the drinks. Even the deli and bakery section had shelves moved out to make room for something else.

Fortunately, I didn't have too much to buy and I wasn't in a time crunch. I could figure out where to go, but I was definitely off of my normal path. I looked at some of the other shoppers. Most of them looked frustrated and confused. Everyone just seemed to be wandering around with a lost look on their face.

I'm sure in time that everyone will adjust. We'll be able to get to the toilet paper aisle without thinking, and our shopping routes will become reestablished so we can shop on autopilot. I do wonder why they decided to make such drastic changes. Knowing Wal-Mart, they probably studied how store arrangement affects buying habits so we'll spend even more on our shopping trips. Or maybe, it was just a random change and someone is watching me on the security cameras and laughing.