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Is it just me, or have you too noticed a new phenomenon while shopping... the departmentalizing of our super-stores.

Let me explain. I went to an ASDA last week and was looking for fresh chicken stock. I saw someone who obviously knew what she was doing (Asda clothing, store phone, etc.) and went up to her. She was talking in her phone to a customer, so I just stood there in her line of site.

She looked at me and said 'I'm on the phone'. I smiled and replied 'I can see that. I'll wait'.

Moments later she was off. I asked her where the fresh chicken stock was. She said 'Sorry, I don't know'. I said, 'You look like a person who should know though'.

'No,' she said, 'I don't know anything. That's not my department anyway' And promptly walked off.

Putting this down to the fact I'd annoyed her by standing near her, or that she was a disgruntled employee, I went off to ask someone else.

Same response pretty much: Sorry, that's not my department.

Admittedly, this ASDA was huuuuge by UK standards (tiny by USA WALMART standards though), so I wandered on, finally stumbling across someone who actually worked in the relevant 'department'.

Fast forward a few days. I'm now in Sainsburys. It's a small one too. You can spit from one end and have it land at the other end (probably). Anyway, this time I'm looking for sesame seeds. I ask someone. They say...

'No idea, sorry. It's not my department. Why don't you try fruit and veg?'

This man was standing on the aisle next to the fruit and veg section. If he reached out his left hand he could have stroked a cabbage.

Now, I distinctly remember this man from a few weeks ago (looks like the music teacher, Dewey Largo from the Simpsons), when I asked him where the virgin olive oil had been moved to, and he actually took me there.

Not this time though. This time it wasn't his department.

So, what does this tell us? Apart from the obvious - that I can't navigate around a superstore very well.

I think it tells us that there's something new being tried in our stores today... not only are they changing contents around (thus fooling us into spending more time looking for our shopping and hopefully impulse buying things), but they are now also telling their employees not to leave their stations, never to give directions, not to know anyone else's products or placements.

Why? Perhaps it's (again) a ploy to get us to spend more time wandering around like lost children at a fair, grabbing at snacks to comfort eat our way out of the labyrinth (have you too noticed the addition of snack towers at the end of each aisle - chocolates, beef jerky, crisps)...

Or, perhaps this was all just coincidence... has it happened to you?

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