To be fed up of high shelves in supermarkets?

[PoliteCritic]

I am 5ft 3, so not tiny, but I am increasingly unable to reach lots of things at the supermarket, even in the fresh fruit and veg section. People always say just to ask someone, but I literally have to ask about 5 or 6 people in a normal supermarket shop.
I normally shop at ALDI and M and S, are there any supermarkets that do not stack food so high? I am really so fed up of it.

Sure, I'm not saying "complaining" as in "whining/being unreasonable." I can totally get that this is frustrating. But presumably the shelves are higher for a reason. Possibly, labour shortages are resulting in supermarkets wanting shelves to be higher in order to accommodate greater volumes of stuff so that it needs to be restocked less frequently. If that is the case, it might be necessary to pay higher prices to fund higher wages and reduce labour shortages.

@GreenTeaLikesMe shelves are not stocked frequently anyway, but that is another issue. The only aim is to pack more things for sale into a small space. As if the actual customers do not matter.

Sorry, I'm just chuckling my tiny mum in Sainsbury's many years ago... She wanted an iceberg lettuce, she was getting an iceberg lettuce...
Stood on the bottom of the display, reached up, pulled down 2 shelves of about 50 iceberg lettuce. Popped one on her trolley and walked off

Brilliant 😂

I'm 5 foot and half an inch. I hate high shelves and I look around for a taller person and go and ask them to reach me down the item I want. No one has ever refused to help me yet.

I’m not sure who is tall enough to reach everything in supermarkets. I’m 5 11” and every week I have to clamber up the fridge shelving to get a big pot of the full fat, Greek style yoghurt in Aldi. I can reach most things though

I'm 5ft 8 and code check. Have to grovel on the floor for the bottom shelves and use a stool for top shelves.

Recently had extra produce delivered and management put in an extra shelf which is even too high with me on a stool and decided to put loose tomatoes on the top shelf. When majority of customers who buy a couple of loose tomatoes are elderly and in the main, short. I changed the cases round. First time that new store manager didn't have a go at me.

I'm 5'9 I'm the person that gets asked, or just offers to get stuff down for people

I'm 5 3 and in all honesty I rarely have to ask someone to get me something. What I find worse is if I want something on the lowest shelves. I have a bad hip and it can be really hard trying to get down there to see if they've got what I want!

I'm 5 ft 8" so this is not a problem for me but goods on shelves that are the height of my ankles are hard to see and find.

Is not so much the high shelves on their own that I find a problem, is when what I want is right at the back of a high shelf. Turns me into a swearing loon as I scale the heights of the dry goods section with my crampons.

Haha, this is me, I get my 5 year old to get the stuff from the low shelves. I am 5.9.

You can have lower shelves when we taller people are given more legroom in buses, planes etc.

If you want more legroom, pay for it.

I'm 5 ' 2" and manage just fine with supermarket shelves.

The world was set up to suit men's heights. There was a point in time when women would struggle with the height mirrors was at. I can remember getting mirrors put in my house and arguing with the DIY guy because he was telling me that they looked stupid. But that Is only because we are used to them being high. I asked him what was the point when I couldn't see in them. It's the same for public seating, rails on public transport etc.

I'm 5ft 3 too and it annoys me, especially when heavy items or glass jars are on the top shelf.

I knocked over a couple of yoghurts in glass jars in Aldi trying to reach them, no shelf to stand on in the fridge section. No staff or other shoppers around, so I had to walk around to look for a staff member to report it before someone slipped. When I found someone he found the flavours I wanted and handed them to me. I wasted his time and the 2 staff members who had to clean up the broken glass and yoghurt.

In Tesco staff have to look for the stool to retrieve items for me. It can't be safe having staff members trying to balance on a stool while lifting things over their heads to put them there!

I'm 5 7 and never needed any help to get something down??

where are you all shopping?

One of my favourite things about my flat is that the bathroom cabinets reach down to the sink & have big mirrored doors.

I climb up the shelves. No one has said anything so far. If the shelves are strong enough to hold hundreds of toms of beans, they’re strong enough to take my weight.

In 4'8. I would like all the aisles to have footstools as I hate asking for help. I do climb but not all shelves are climbable especially if they put the clear plastic ridge in the way

I just ask someone. Never had anyone say no but I did have a man ask if I could get him something from the bottom shelf in exchange 🤣

What’s more dangerous than high shelves are mixed boards of soft drinks in Aldi. As they are mixed cases - all the orange squash is on the same side. Customers all pick the orange squash and boards go lopsided.

its only a matter of time before someone will get injured from these boards falling on them

I've not noticed this in supermarkets so much although I probably will, now I've read this thread!

But I wanted to buy a box of Christmas cards last year and the boxes were on a high shelf that I couldn't reach so I just walked out again as there were no step stools.

And separate but related, why do shops with more than one floor have the kids' sections (clothes, books, toys) on a higher floor so you need to get the lift with a buggy? Wouldn't it make more sense to have the kids section on the ground floor? I guess you need to take small kids with you for adult products as well but it would seem sensible to put items for kids where they are easily accessible by kids and their parents.

At 4'10 I really struggle...... now I get what I can and just order the rest online, I suffer huge anxiety so asking a stranger is a no can do for me

I detest the newest fad of putting everything, almost, behind glass doors meaning that if there's a ditherer or, worse still one who has to phone someone before making a simple purchase, they block the shelves whereas in th'olden days one could reach round them.

The chilled shelves in my local Lidl are very deep and if the milk is getting low it's hard to reach into the shelf and I'm 5' 7'' too. If there are 'suits' hanging around as often happens I make a point of asking them to help!