The Con in Consumer

The luxury of browsing items for purchase from the comfort of a bed in a questionable state of undress (seng'enge ni ng'ombe haute couture) has been available to us for quite a while now. Call me old fashioned but it does not compare to the peculiar satisfaction of sauntering down well-stocked aisles adorned in endless rows of colourful brands. Don't act shocked. Surely you are familiar with aisle 2? That paradise comprised of mesmerising motifs of coffees, cocoas and teas in small, medium and large from a variety of manufacturers. A dazzling display of order that is mythical in most of our homesteads.

Photo by Charles Gao on Unsplash

Either way, replacing online shopping with a proper trip to wherever your current Nakumatt equivalent is, requires a household audit to keep the panic of forgetting the toilet cleaner for the fourth time at bay. Balancing out the excitement is a seriousness driven by my buying power in a fickle economy.

Enter the Dragon

I am on location at the new sokomart and have trouble finding the entrance although the luggage drop point hinted at what would be the entry. There, a hefty, towering Simba Mbili guard halts my progress with the security wand to my torso and bellows, hatuuingilii hapa (This is not the entrance). If I could, I'd turn redder than my mama mboga’s in-season tomatoes. Walking back, head hung low and hands baptised in sanitiser, the embarrassment is near-fatal but I'll purchase glucose that will possibly reboot my spirit. Mortified, I complied with her directive.

Shop

Level 2 of market mania is unlocked. Locating a trolly in decent working order was almost as likely as finding an honest politician. Most had squeaky wheels. Those in working order often had a single rebellious one constantly threatening to bring the entire shopping operation to a halt. Passing the wheel test, they would be sticky with what I could only guess is fruit juice 😳 The struggle to find a clean handbasket - because the carts were far too massive for my humble shopping list- was just as tortuous. When I finally decided to go for the cart, the aforementioned rebel wheel actively resisted my advancement.

Level 3: Get in, do what you need to do and get out. The cheat sheet for this level is a grocery list. I require the manoeuvring skill of a cartographer and a navy SEAL to acquire everything listed from detergent to soy sauce in record time. It's a game I play to see how easy it is to navigate through aisles. A labyrinth of shoppers' neglected trollies, playful toddlers and boulders of supermarket attendants restocking the shelves. Lord knows few of us would meet Him should a fire drill be conducted. The dulcet DJ Adrian mix attempted to recalibrate my dampened mood. Although I enjoyed being in massive stores when I was younger, now my priorities have shifted to efficiency as opposed to wonder. The frustration of having tare spices and cereals three aisles apart from the pre-packed counterparts was giving anything but. I understand wanting people to spend more time in the store to increase their chances of impulse buying in this economy_but is this the best way to do it?

Boss Level

With the help of mandatory signage and a few kind staff, I managed to get to checkout. It's no Sunday evening yet the lines were formidable. Alfred Hitchcock movie anyone? Although the queues were fairly straight, the dolly zoom was in effect to see where the cashier sat. Terribly unfortunate for the Gen Z clutching a coke zero and gum to be caught in the same line as me seeing as the less than 5 items counter was overridden by massive shoppers. Oh well, si ni life 🤷🏽‍♀️

Design Opportunities

Wayfinding: The entrance and exit. For first-time shoppers of a new branch, this creates the initial impression of the store more so for first-timers of the brand. Solution: Have a single entryway making the luggage centre central to manage the flow of customers. Understandably, security is the deciding factor - how likely is shoplifting- for the store's porosity. Balancing a show of power, through virtual and in-person surveillance, and extending trust to the public i.e. I believe you are a good person and I trust you to pay for anything you walk out of the store with. This will need to operate on an assumption that people are intrinsically good and want to live up to the value of honesty, an invisible design outcome. see halo effect

Findability: positioning the fresh fruit and bakery as the anchor products is a strategy that currently works to promote the capitalistic dream that makes the world go round. In the same vein, organising products in a complimentary fashion would ease a grocery run for the consumer. It's word associations for commodities. Additionally, on the subcategories of products, having a visual matrix of type vs brand helps with choice-making.

Think 1. types of milk i.e. whole milk, skimmed, lactose-free milk, plant-based milk 2. quantity of milk - 200ml, 500ml, 1 ltr, 3ltr -plus everything in between- and 3. brand (free sponsorship? I think not). Honouring brand agreements, how can the store cater to the time-constrained customer instead of making it a non-consensual treasure hunt?

Climate friendliness: begins in the parking lot, for those who want to cycle to the store are there bike racks. Especially for the midweek light shopping that doesn't require the SUV to struggle to find parking. The tare system introduced in the majority of the stores can offer reduced pricing for those who bring their own containers as well as reduce operational costs for the supermarket.

Social contracts: We can employ some degree of social intelligence by respecting tills designated for less than 5 items. We have at one point in our lives experienced unmanned booths or teller boxes what is one more? However, during rush hours these tills can serve customers outside of this bracket but anyone that meets the criteria should be served next. Say what you mean, mean what you say because with great power comes great responsibility. Changes in shopping behaviour can be affected by stores which can play into efforts to use consumerism in the increasing sustainability in the Anthropocene. That said, happy shopping :)