Reorganizing Groceries

So, American grocery stores seem to have a particular configuration:  all of the healthy food around the perimeter of the store and all the processed food in the aisles.

It's true of EVERY grocery store I've ever been in.

I think it's because processed food comes in boxes and cans, which stack well on shelves...whereas produce needs a custom shelf/display...and milk and eggs need to be refrigerated, which is much easier along the perimeter.

And for the past 10, perhaps 20 years, the supermarket-sized grocery stores have also set aside space for "green" or "organic" groceries.

Now, I don't buy a lot of organic foods (somehow I feel this is a bit of hypocritical thing to do since I was a gene surgeon, myself), but this is also where the gluten-free items have been housed, so I visit it often.

Well, the local Cub Foods grocery, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to not only integrate all of the organic and specialty foods with the other foods in the store, but to move them into obscure places.

For example:  The frozen gluten-free bread is now in between the frozen pizzas and the frozen entrees.

Thanks makes sense, right?  Right in the middle of everything glutenous and unhealthy?

And the gluten-free flours are on the middle shelf of the baking aisle, right below the Pillsbury cake flour (uhm, GLUTEN?!?) and between the "whole grain" flours.

Nice, planning, huh?

It's about a great as hiding the organic Sunbutter (which is just nasty, but it is peanut-free) amongst the peanut butters.

Evidently, the grocery store planners are unaware that peanut allergies can be inhaled, so any broken jar of PB and it's DOA for the someone shopping peanut-free.

While gluten-free is not as dramatic as aliphatic shock, I still won't be buying any of their contaminated products.