Now Available: Confusion in Aisle 9

People like brands that make them comfortable. That is why we shop at certain stores. We feel comfortable there. We know where to find things. Because these stores carry my favorite brands, they, too, have become my favorites.

But, some may not be my favorites for long.

Based on consumer buying patterns, or a consultant’s report or some computer printout somewhere, some of my favorite stores are changing. A nearby Super Target is clearing its aisles and moving its shelves and putting one department over here and another over there and it just doesn’t feel the same anymore. Because it isn’t.In the process, the chain is dropping certain items in favor of others. I went in last week to buy some Bankers Boxes in the home office department. Instead, I was told they have reduced the home office department and, sure thing, no longer carry Bankers Boxes. They only carry office “essentials.” Essentially, I was out of luck.

So I drove across the street to Walmart and, guess what? Walmart has also rearranged its store and downsized the office supplies and, nope, no more Bankers Boxes.

But it doesn’t stop there. The Walgreens nearest our home is also “remodeling,” and as its employees readily admit, a lot of the current inventory won’t be around anymore. Instead, a “new healthcare experience” is headed my way. Not that I had a problem with the old healthcare experience. But, nobody asked me.

I only hope it won’t be like the new experience at some of our nearby Hy-Vee grocery stores. Several in our area have cleared a huge section of the store in order to carry, no, not more food or household items. They have added clothing departments. Racks and racks of summer clothes, right there between the frozen food and the oral hygiene supplies. Some have even added outdoor furniture to the mix. And, yes, in order to make room for walking shorts and Adirondack chairs, some of the brands they no longer carry are my favorite brands. They’ve also rearranged what they do stock in ways that have me and a lot of other customers wandering up and down aisles, seeking clarity and the canola oil.I’m not ranting. There is a branding lesson here. A grocery store that gets rid of grocery items in order to sell clothes is a brand that has lost its way. It has abandoned what it is best at and is trying to be everything to everyone. It fails to recognize why people come in the door and instead, by doing away with real food products in order to sell rompers, it is sending its customers elsewhere to find what they need.

It doesn’t make good brand sense. It’s akin to Lowe’s removing its lumber department in order to sell toys, or Dillard’s abandoning its menswear to sell fresh vegetables. That isn’t why people shop at Lowe’s or Dillard’s. And clothing wasn’t what made Hy-Vee so popular.

I still shop at Hy-Vee. I have friends who work there. But I spend a lot more time wandering. And wondering why.

I’m not comfortable when I’m lost. Brands shouldn’t be, either.