one way grocery stores?

I will offer a couple different stores locals as evidence.

Aldi. This store design works well for 1 way flow. The entrance to the store leads you right down the 1st isle. When I shop there, I generally will go up and down each isle to get my stuff. it has a natural flow that works well with the idea of 1 way isles. Of course, the whole store only has 5 isles

1. Snacks, cookies, candy, bread, fresh fruit
2. Fresh vegies, condiments, sauces, chips, pasta, canned goods.
3. Cereal, baking supplies, paper goods, cleaning supply, baby needs.
4. Aldi Finds, pet products, discontinued and sale merchandise.
5. Large bulk packages, milk, dairy, coffee and frozen goods.
The outer wall on 3 sides is refrigerator and freezer cases with all your cold foods.

If I skip the Aldi finds, I can go up and down each one quickly, get my stuff and end up at the registers. The only real issue I have is Aldi loves to move stuff around. So if I go down one isle and find the moved what I'm after, I may end up bucking the system to go back for what I missed.

I'll skip Walmart and just use Martin's as my counter example. Martin's is owned by Giant. First, these stores are much larger than Aldi, and have 2 entrances. One by the bakery, one by fresh fruits and vegies. These stores really don't have a layout that works with 1-way traffic. I would say for a couple reasons:

1. Multiple entrances. Makes it harder to have a natural flow.
2. Many isles. While you may start with good flow, once you skip an isle because you don't need to go down it, it really messes with your ability to channel people in one direction. You can go down one isle, skip the next, and then find yourself at the wrong end of the next one you do want to go down. It's annoying to go al the way down one isle you don't need to just to go up the one you want.

I would be courious the design logic between between Aldi and Martins. Is Aldi trying to get people in and out faster to minimize costs and keep prices down, where as Martins is trying to get people to stay longer, get more impulse items and spend more? Or is i the best way to manage a large store?

Thinking about it if you would scale up an Alsi, I suspect you will reach a point where the linear flow that they want to maintain is no longer practical. It is more inconvenient than helpful.

In my experience, stores do try to do their restocking at low traffic times. When I worked at Walmart, most of it was done on 3rd shift, when the store had the fewest customers. However, there would be some restocking throughout the day. Part of it is that some companies prefer to have their own people do the stocking. I remember Hostess brands, Kebler, and Wonder Bread were some that would hire their own people to come in and stock. They usually came in in the evening, but they could be any time in the day. In the grocery section, during the day most of the people stocking is these subcontract workers. Although there are a few company people working. They are as much cleaning up stock, cleaning displays, and putting away returns from the front end as it they are putting out new stock.

I have not worked at Aldi, so I can't say for certain how they operate, but they appears to do their stocking during the day, but early morning weekdays when they presumably quieter. I could see them not wanting to have to pay the premium for a late night crew.

Regarding isle spacing. Aldi seams wider to me. However, I have not measured it myself, so it could be an illusion. I could see how Aldi tends to encourage people to keep moving, plus the shelves are shorter, so it doesn't seam as claustrophobic as Martins or Walmart where they have taller shelves. I could see shorter shelving being helpful to keep people moving since they do not have to look over as much area to find what they want. Aldi, also has much smaller selection. If it's not on one small area, it's not there. So you get what you want and move on. The downside is youdon't have the selection, different brands, and specificity versions of items (like store brands, vegan versions, etc.)

How much of the design of the store contribute to people wanting to hold family reunions in Walmart's cereal isle?