Last weekend I went back to the Kaufland near us. It had been closed for about two weeks for renovation, and when I walked in, the first thing I felt was mild disorientation. I walked the aisles more carefully than usual, spent extra time looking for a couple of things, and only gradually figured out where the non-food section now sat. The new layout looked better, more open, cleaner shelves :) but those first few minutes made me think again about something we normally take for granted: why do the branches of these chains feel so similar?
There is no law that requires it. No regulation in Germany (or elsewhere that I have found) forces supermarket chains to keep the same shelf layout across stores. What exists are ordinary building and safety rules about exits, aisle widths in larger stores, and accessibility. Product placement and overall arrangement are commercial decisions.
The main reason is familiarity for the customer. When you walk into any Lidl or Aldi and already know roughly where things are, the shopping trip stays quick and low-effort. An Aldi store manager explained it directly in interviews, stores are deliberately laid out the same way so that customers always find the familiar promotional sections and can locate what they need without having to relearn the store. The goal is a consistent shopping experience across locations.
One common detail of these layouts is the placement of fruit and vegetables right at the entrance. The idea is to greet the customer with freshness. Bright produce creates an immediate impression of quality and sets a positive tone for the rest of the shop. Several chains, including Aldi, have deliberately moved their fresh section closer to the door for this reason.
That consistency also makes operations cheaper and more reliable. Smaller stores with fewer aisles reduce rent, energy and staffing costs. Employees can move between branches more easily because the processes are the same. Restocking is faster (especially in discounters that often leave goods in the delivery boxes). Central logistics become simpler when every store follows the same basic plan. Seems Kaufland and REWE are less extreme, but they still standardise within a given store format.
Behind the shelves sits the planogram, the detailed map of exactly where each product should sit, how many facings it gets, and at what height. When the overall layout of stores is similar, a company can compare performance across locations and adjust placement based on real sales and margin data. As I found REWE has moved toward more store-specific planograms in recent years so that local demand can influence the detail, but the broader structure remains standardised.
Layouts do change from time to time. Lidl has tested cross aisles in some stores to improve cooling efficiency. Aldi has shifted fresh produce closer to the entrance. These experiments show that the sameness is not absolute; it lasts only as long as it continues to serve efficiency and customer habits.
When our Kaufland reopened with a different arrangement, the first visit felt slightly off. After a couple of loops through the store the old sense of orientation returned, and the shopping trip became normal again.
The design is practical. It reduces friction for the customer and cost for the company. The moment it is altered, the friction briefly reappears which is probably the best evidence that the usual similarity is doing its job.