> Still, they weren’t doing this a few decades ago and they were fine.

This part at least isn't really true. Since grocery stores have been around, there have been people working full time in effectively analytics - observing customer behavior, modifying products/layouts/UX, doing a/b testings etc. Digitizing everything gives new tools and approaches but overall the game hasn't really changed.

Every part of your experience in an grocery store has been analyzed and tweaked since at least the 60s.