Comment by jcranmer
2 years ago
> Popular things are closer to the back of the grocery store -- milk, eggs, meat, produce, higher-volume soft drinks -- in order to force you to walk past everything else to reach them.
> Ice cream is not that popular, so it could reasonably be stocked near the front of the store. But all the flavors are stored together, as you'd expect.
This part is actually more plausible than you'd expect, especially if you assume that details are slightly garbled by the N'th retelling.
Last year, we went to a convenience store to pick up some ice cream treats after a big hike. There was one of those mini freezers with a set of frozen treats right next to the entrance, facing the cashier. But there was also a line of full-sized freezers containing all the usual frozen goods (including frozen ice cream treats) in one of the aisles. Depending on which frozen treat you wanted, you'd either be picking it right up by the front door, or having to wander down an aisle to find it.
Yep, same with the grocery stores around here, they all have last-minute snacks and drinks at the checkout stands.
Ice cream tends to be somewhere close to the middle of the store. But if you're after staple foods in larger-than-snack-size quantities, you'll be doing some walking.