One nitpick: maybe it's just the grocery stores near me, but the Pharmacies are almost always located near the front right by where you walk in. Milk is often in the back however.
Milk in the back or side makes sense though. The milk and dairy area is usually front-facing doors from the huge walk-in refrigerator.
It wouldn't be smart to put a huge walk-in fridge in the center or front of the store, given the recurring shipments from cold storage trucks to fridge.
... However locally, our Kroger(s) has a small case that holds 15 gallons of milk, and a shelf of common bread up front and center.
There was an interesting episode on Planet Money a little while back about why milk is in the back of a supermarket. They had two people give very different explanations: Russ Roberts (an economist) argued that it was just simpler to maintain the cold chain with milk (and meat) in the back of the store since that's where trucks unload, and Michael Pollan (a food writer) argued that it was a behavioral economics trick to make people walk through the whole store.
That said, I've also noticed that in many larger store they have a small case of frequently bought perishables at the front of the store.
Former merchandiser here. Staples are always furthest from entrance and then separated(ie: bread one back corner, milk opposite) to make most people walk the entire store to get what they need. And that 'convenience' case in the front... take a look at the expiration dates on the products in said case, that product needs to be sold faster than the stock in the back.
Edit: PS: That economist, it's his job to rationalize the action monetarily. I/we/most people realize, if returns could be increeased, hamburger would be in a cooler next to the checkout.
Its startling to see how evil insinuates itself into normal people gradually so they don't even notice. The store managers probably think this is a standard practice so its ok. Not a pointless waste of customers' time and energy in the cynical hope to manipulate them into buying what they don't want. I plan on resenting my local mega market in future every time I make the hike to the back of their block-long store for a half-gallon of 1%.
Sadly, the store/department managers have no say in the matter. It's all laid out at corporate. Most managers inside the brick & mortar roll with it no matter how nonsensical some edicts are, some were/are bitter. They all know they are ultimately expendable.
Mine has the pharmacy just inside the doors and a cooler right next to the checkout counters filled with milk. You do, however, have to walk past a big cooler full of delicious cheese and fresh sushi pretty much as soon as you enter the door :)
