Move It Along, Please

Linda Raymond of Chantilly has one goal when she goes to the supermarket: to get out as fast as she can.

"I am the world's fastest shopper," says Raymond, "because I hate grocery shopping. I hate the money you have to spend. I hate the long lines and the stupid cards you have to use everywhere to get a discount," she adds, as she loads her car with groceries outside a Giant supermarket in Herndon.

The mother of an "always hungry" teenage son, Raymond shops three or four times a week. She also works full time and wishes that supermarkets would do more to make shopping fast and convenient. Her suggestions: more express lines and more quick pickup items near the entrance. "Why do I have to go all the way to the back of the store if all I need is milk?" she asks.

Raymond isn't the only one who'd like to see some changes at the grocery store.

Three University of Pennsylvania marketing experts say the supermarket industry has been slow to respond to consumer needs, in part because grocery chains have some outmoded ideas of how people really shop.

Peter S. Fader, Eric T. Bradlow and Jeffrey S. Larson, all of the Wharton School, analyzed data from special tracking devices attached to shopping carts at one West Coast supermarket. The data from 2004 showed, they say, that shoppers move through a store in a very different way than many retailers realize.

Among their findings: Shoppers like to go in a counterclockwise direction; they don't weave up and down every aisle, in fact they rarely go all the way down any aisle; and to speed things up, they stick to the perimeter and avoid huge chunks of the store.

Fader, a professor of marketing, believes the grocery industry has spent too much time focusing on such things as loyalty programs (discount cards, for example) and not enough time on store layouts that meet shoppers' needs.

But a spokesman for the grocery industry says supermarkets do understand consumer buying behavior. "We know consumers are time-starved," says Stephen Sibert, vice president for industry development and membership with the Grocery Manufacturers of America. Sibert says supermarkets are trying new ways to help shoppers, including cooking demonstrations, grouping together products for special events such as graduation parties, and improving store layouts.

As it turns out, a convenient layout that makes it easy to shop is important to 93 percent of customers, according to the 2005 "U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends" report, released last month by the Food Marketing Institute, the industry's trade association.

Traditionally a phone survey of 500 shoppers, this year's report used the Internet to survey 2,001 shoppers. Conducted by Harris Poll Online, the survey showed that while shoppers want bargains, they -- like Raymond -- increasingly value speed and convenience when they choose a place to buy their food.

Those surveyed said they'd shop at their neighborhood supermarket more often if the stores had faster checkout, a quick-stop area for things such as bread and milk, and a convenient spot where shoppers could pick up items for that night's dinner, such as pasta, salad and dessert.