In grocery lingo, an endcap is the set of shelves at the front or rear of an aisle. Markets typically usually use this space to highlight new or unusual products or to give prominent display to sale items.
Endcaps also change with the seasons. At Easter, you’ll see chocolate bunnies. At Thanksgiving, stuffing mix and cranberry sauce.
These days, endcaps are devoted to staples.
Endcaps along the middle lane bisecting my store are jammed with pasta, canned beans, sugar and cereal.
Some displays, as Wegmans struggles to satisfy enormous demand, are brand names you won’t recognize. Freezers at the front end of one aisle are filled with generic-looking corn and peas.
The marketing message of the endcap is no longer one of nifty or thrifty, but of reassurance.
We have these items, the endcaps proclaim. We’ll continue to get them, one way or another.
So calm down.