Going The Wrong Way...At Costco

My wife and I did a little shopping at our local Costco Superstore after work this afternoon. The store's pretty wide open allowing patrons to go hither and yon to find the things they want. I'm not an expert on shopping center design. I'm sure there's a master plan to herd the shoppers to maximize their spending. I see it in our local grocery store more, but, well...there you go.

Our trip took us to a couple of places we don't go very often--the fresh vegetables, and the dairy sections. They're both separated from the shopping floor because they are cooler than their surroundings. My wife and I went in, we looked around, picked up what we needed, then left.

After we left the veggies section, I said to my wife, "You went the wrong way in there." Once again, I'm no expert on shopping center design, but I did notice everyone else turned right when they entered, then walked around making three left turns before they exited. 

My wife and I chatted about that. You know, small talk you say to avoid making eye contact with the free sample people. "I'm going to go into the dairy section," she said.

And so she did. When she came out, she said, "Wow--I guess I went the wrong way in there, too."

I once heard a frequent traveler tell us non-frequent travelers how to speed things up when you're out and about. I've forgotten many of the things, but I do remember one thing they said. "Whenever you're lining up for anything, tickets, boarding passes, car rentals, go to the line on the left. Americans are programmed to automatically go to the right because of how we drive."

I though that interesting.

I don't know if it holds true for a proper way to circumnavigate a shopping cart through the cold sections on the Costco sales floor. I do know, if everyone turned right then left three times and we turned left then right three times, it might cause a veggie traffic jam.

And jam's all the way over at the other side of the store.