Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2014 December 20

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December 20

Venn diagram grocery store

I wonder if anyone has ever...

Had a grocery store with various healthy food sections, such as low salt, low carb, low sugar, and healthy fats only, laid out in such a manner that overlapping areas contain combinations of each of those categories, as in the following Venn diagram:

I would expect that they would want to square them up a bit, to fit with the aisles needed in an efficient grocery store layout. With 5 or more healthy food categories, you would either need to go to extremes to make a Venn diagram, or else repeat some food placements.

Another approach would be to categorize by specific diseases those foods are designated for, like diabetes, kidney failure, heart disease, and cancer prevention.

So, has anyone done this anywhere ? StuRat (talk) 17:36, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Seems unlikely. Grocery stores are not laid out for your convenience. They are laid out to get the maximum amount of cash from your pocket into their cash registers, since that is why they exist. Read here especially number five, or here, etc. Remember also that "health food" stores are no different: they exist to extract money from the pockets of customers in the most efficient way possible; they just do so by targeting a specific class of customers and catering to them in specific ways, but broadly they too will obey the rules of grocery store layout: there have been numerous controlled experiments done which are designed to find out what store layouts extract the most cash from customers, and based on the results of those studies, stores will lay themselves out like that. --Jayron32 17:50, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

There are many people who are willing to pay a premium for convenience. Fast food restaurants and convenience stores like 7-11 are a testament to this fact. Unfortunately, those places offer primarily unhealthy food.

There are also many people willing to pay a premium for healthy food. Health food stores and chains like Whole Foods are evidence of this. However, they tend to be rather inconvenient, if you need to read the ingredients of every item before you purchase it, since you really can't trust the front labels to tell the truth (supposedly "lightly salted" peanuts being one example), and since what's "healthy" for you really depends on your particular diet.

So, I suspect there are people who will pay a premium for health food and for convenience, my Mom being one of them. (Back to the Venn diagram, we are at the intersection of the two sets.) It would be quite strange, in fact, if those customers willing to pay more for healthy foods are mutually exclusive of those willing to pay more for convenience. Thus there appears to be an unmet need with a corresponding market. StuRat (talk) 18:34, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

• I went to the grocery store my father frequents to buy my parents supplies for Thanksgiving. The stuffing my mom likes was on sale, so I looked for it in the stuffing aisle, where they have the canned cranberry sauce, but it wasn't there. I asked a clerk, who said, oh, this aisle has boxed stuffing. You want the bagged stuffing, 20 miles -- that is aisles -- to the west. So, I went to the bread aisle, and found the bagged stuffing, but the brand on sale was not there. Again I asked a clerk, and was told, "Oh, the on-sale stuffing isin the seafood section 10 aisles back that way. You can't miss it." μηδείς (talk) 18:49, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

• Yea, even worse that that is batteries, which they seem to put next to everything that requires batteries. I counted about a dozen locations at my local Meijer's. StuRat (talk) 21:14, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Possibly there is a food retail website with narrowing options, such as the following.

• Sugar-free? Yes or No.
• Salt-free? Yes or no.
• Gluten-free? Yes or No.
• Yeast-free? Yes or No.
• Certified organic? Yes or No.

In such a situation, there can be 100 overlapping areas represented by questions.

—Wavelength (talk) 19:47, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

That would work for some foods that don't spoil quickly, although waiting for Internet deliveries isn't very convenient. So, a brick-and-mortar grocery store is still needed. StuRat (talk) 21:21, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

What is this cylindrical device?

This was found in the street. What is this device?

Unknown cylidrical device found in the street

Gil_mo (talk) 20:23, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Does the side bit mount or bolt to to anything? Might the round side be side, and the circular side the top and bottom? And where was it found? Did you have to clean it up at all? Depending on the answers to those questions, my guess would be anywhere between something to hang objects from (clothes), or some sort of filtration device. Ian.thomson (talk) 20:33, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

It looks like it hangs from the metal bar. It was found near the trash in the street, and was suprisingly clean. Gil_mo (talk) 20:42, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

It's probably not a filter then. The bits around the sides remind me of some indoor clotheslines I've seen, but it looks a touch impractical for that and I can't find one that actually looks like it. Are those sheet looking things in the "spokes" absorbent, and are the bars on the edges not especially sturdy? Those would be arguments against it being an indoor clothesline. It could be just for one's dainties they don't want the neighbors to see. Ian.thomson (talk) 21:27, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

You might find a replica of it in commons:Category:Round objects.

—Wavelength (talk) 21:13, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

I have the same rug. :-) StuRat (talk) 21:19, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

It reminds me of something from a loom or a weaving device. I'm not sure what the plastic sheets would do in that case, though. The indoor clothesline for small objects might hold some weight: perhaps the plastic sheets is for dripping water to flow towards the center and not get the objects on the other sides wet. —/Mendaliv/^2¢/_Δ's/ 00:09, 21 December 2014 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure it's a (damaged) rotatable shoe rack. If you google "round shoe rack", you'll find some examples. e.g. here. ---Sluzzelin talk 00:25, 21 December 2014 (UTC)

Concur, as made by Rakku Inc (US Patent 7699181) Nanonic (talk) 00:34, 21 December 2014 (UTC)

Yes, you can see the empty hole in the hub for the other leg (the hub is upside down, or, rather, should be rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise). This hub/leg design matches the other photos. That was too easy, what else you got? ‑‑Mandruss ☎ 00:49, 21 December 2014 (UTC)

You guys rock! A shoe rack indeed. Easy for you, not for me :) Thanks! Gil_mo (talk) 07:10, 21 December 2014 (UTC)