That's intentional. Grocery stores are laid out to encourage you to spend more.

Like almost everything people complain about nowadays, this is not a tech problem, has never been a tech problem, and cannot be fixed with tech.

Third parties with tech could fix it.

Is this a US thing?

I think here in France the best example is Lidl. The stores are laid out the same, so not only your usual store doesn't change, but you can go to any store in the country and find what you want at the same spot.

Personally, with self-checkout, I spend less than 15mn in the store to do a week of groceries.

Not sure if it is just a US thing but it to add a little more depth. Most stores as already stated want you to wander a bit to possibly purchase more things but the other piece is most stores custom to local preferences both on what they carry and where it’s located.

Thought differently most major chains capture all of this data and can optimize stores for sales.

I think the bigger complaint is a typical US grocery store carries an insane amount of SKUs. If I was just going to Trader Joe’s it’s no problem. Low sku count layouts never change. Walmart has probably 10x the skus and it’s a struggle sometimes just finding what you want. Oh I need dry dill, well in the spice section there are 3 or 4 brands. Within those sometimes it’s not in alphabetical order. Things are misplaced or just out of stock.

When I was a kid, 30 years ago, some grocery stores did have an aisle guide printed on the cart. I haven't seen one recently, but they at least did exist.

That’s mostly my problem. Some of the apps have locations, often I find things not there. But for most stores they want you to wander and shop.

Though I don't like shopping at Walmart, I still have to (no store in my area, even "supercenters," has everything I need), and their phone app is absolutely stellar at telling me where a particular product is. Especially handy where there's no staff on the floor (as often happens).