• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, February 17, 2011

It shouldn't be any surprise that consumers are heading to places like drug stores and dollar stores for more food purchases: Supermarkets keep finding ways to tick their shoppers off. The list of shopper peeves include high prices, hard-to-reach shelves and misplaced signs, reports a new survey from Supermarket Guru. And the biggest peeve of all? Some 62% of shoppers say that when stores have items on sale, they run out.

"It's amazing to me that in today's world—with just-in-time inventory and all the technology they have, that stores let this happen," Phil Lempert, CEO of the Supermarket Guru, tells Marketing Daily. "There is just no excuse for that."

In fact, these inconveniences are driving shoppers away from supermarkets, and explain the jump in sales of food items at drug chains like Walgreens, CVS and Duane Reade. Some 35% of people complain that items on top shelves are too high to reach, the way the best deals are always hidden on the lowest shelf, and 28% hate the way promotional displays clog up aisle traffic. "With aging Baby Boomers and arthritis, putting products on shelves that are too high is just annoying," he says. "At stores like Walgreens, you don't have these very tall gondolas and it's a much more comfortable shopping experience."