There is a small new grocery store in the city. They are doing well, and all the aisles are getting crowded. How would you solve it?

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There is a small new grocery store in the city. They are doing well, and all the aisles are getting crowded. How would you solve it?

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Sankalp Phadnis · Answer 1 · 2020-07-14T15:59:18+0000

To answer the question, I would at first need to get some additional information:

Is the demand high for any specific products sold at the market?
Are the rows crowded throughout the open hours of the store, or does it get crowded at any specific time?
What is the layout of the store?
How are the items arranged in the store?

Based on the answer to these questions, here are the main problems I can think of on the top of my head:

The demand for a certain product is high, leading to crowding of rows.
The demand at a specific time is high, leading to crowding of rows.
The layout of the shop makes it hard for customers to find what they need.

If the demand for a certain product is high, then I would propose to increase the stock of that specific product and keep it at a place which can accommodate a large number of people. I can also use the layout of the shop to look for ideas for the same.

If the demand at a specific time is high (for example in the evening, after office time), then I will inquire about the demographics of the customers when the rows are crowded (e.g. adults if the shop gets crowded after office time, children if the shop gets crowded after school finishes, etc). Depending on the demographics, I can then gauge if there are any items which they won't be interested at all to buy (like children won't be keen on buying toiletries or utensils after school). Depending on this, the store can either:

Arrange the items in a way that would make the unwanted items a bit difficult to find while making others more accessible, enabling faster checkouts.
Open up more checkout counters for peak times.

If the answers to question 3 and 4 indicate that the store is not sorting and storing its items in a simple way, then I can work out some ideas which would help them make it easy for customers to find and get what they need. For example:

Dividing the items into various groups like fruits, oils, etc. Labelling each section and making the label visible from any point in the store.
Analyze what sections do items that are usually bought frequently belong to and make them easy to access.

(This is my first answer, I hope it is clear enough. Would love to know how I can improve my case solving skills)