However, some worker experts, union leaders and small grocery owners believe it has become too dangerous to let customers browse aisles, coming into close range with workers. Grocery stores are still flooded with customers, and experts say it's time for large chains to go "dark" to the public and convert to curbside pickup and home delivery for food and other essential goods.
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-Mark
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Sorry, but stores rely heavily on impulse buying for profit which is evidenced by end-cap displays.
Seriously, how many times have you gone to the store with a shopping list and end up spending half again as much buying shit that wasn't on your list? And it's not just candy and chips, it's stuff that you forgot you were out of until you saw it at the store - stuff you don't need right now but hey! you're out of it or close to it, you see it, so you might as well buy it while you're there. And how about when you go to Aisle 7 to buy something that you know for a fact is in Aisle 7 but overnight the entire aisle has been rearranged with something completely different? That's done on purpose so you'll have to walk past and see stuff you ordinarily don't buy - again, they're taking advantage of that impulse buying thing.
And regardless of what the article says about small grocery stores supporting this, I doubt it - their profit margin is much smaller than larger retailers because they don't buy as much in bulk, so they end up keeping prices as low as they can to compete with the chains which causes their profits to take a hit right out the gate. This will drive the locally owned grocers out of business in no time.
