And the shelves get filled with items that aren't typical for the region/time of year
This is what I've seen a few times recently while shopping. Technically the shelves weren't empty, however seeing excess multipacks of confectionery in the fresh produce areas that were previously fridges is telling that the spots where fresh produce are missing are being filled with whatever is around.
Whether this is being done to hide a lack or products or taking advantage of the space, or both, it's still disguising the fact for many npcs who look at "full" shelves and don't see the forest for the trees.
It's definitely a trick stores do to make sure you see full shelves. Several years ago when I used to travel a lot to California, I'd go the local bevmo stores; and for whatever reason they always had a far better variety of stuff than they do where I live. So whereas the stores up here might have a few rows of the same product on the shelf, down there they'd have one row each of a much greater variety of products.
It's definitely a trick stores do to make sure you see full shelves
Went in to an Aldi store in the last few months [or Lidl, I never remember which one it is], and compared to a previous visit where there used to be an entire fridge/freezer not attached to the walls was instead some regular shelves packed with chocolates and other snack foods. So maybe they were lacking in frozen goods and didn't want it to appear so.
This is what I've seen a few times recently while shopping. Technically the shelves weren't empty, however seeing excess multipacks of confectionery in the fresh produce areas that were previously fridges is telling that the spots where fresh produce are missing are being filled with whatever is around.
Whether this is being done to hide a lack or products or taking advantage of the space, or both, it's still disguising the fact for many npcs who look at "full" shelves and don't see the forest for the trees.
It's definitely a trick stores do to make sure you see full shelves. Several years ago when I used to travel a lot to California, I'd go the local bevmo stores; and for whatever reason they always had a far better variety of stuff than they do where I live. So whereas the stores up here might have a few rows of the same product on the shelf, down there they'd have one row each of a much greater variety of products.
Went in to an Aldi store in the last few months [or Lidl, I never remember which one it is], and compared to a previous visit where there used to be an entire fridge/freezer not attached to the walls was instead some regular shelves packed with chocolates and other snack foods. So maybe they were lacking in frozen goods and didn't want it to appear so.