Revisit the example at the beginning of this chapter that examines some of the principles behind supermarket layout.

Then visit a supermarket and observe people’s behaviour. You may wish to try and observe which areas they move slowly past and which areas they seem to move past without paying attention to the products. (You may have to exercise some discretion when doing this; people generally don’t like to be stalked round the supermarket too obviously.) Try and verify, as far as you can, some of the principles that were outlined in the example.

● If you were to redesign the supermarket, what would you recommend? What do you think, therefore, are the main criteria to be considered in the design of a supermarket layout?

● What competitive or environmental changes may result in the need to change store layouts in the future?

● Will these apply to all supermarkets, or only certain ones, such as town centre stores?