with regard to #14: (disclosure: i work in the grocery industry) my understanding from talking with the people who design our stores is that the reason the meat and dairy are at the back of the store is because a) it's much closer to the loading dock and the dairy case can be loaded directly from behind with no risk of a skid being abandoned in an aisle by a busy employee and b) the meat processing area needs to be close to the meat case and you can't generally put that out in the middle of the store.  As well in terms of airflow and energy concerns it is better to have the meat case against a back wall than it would be in the middle of the store or near the front door (outside airflow = germs too).

There is obviously a benefit to having people have to walk through the whole store to get to the meat and dairy but it's secondary to keeping the foods safe from contamination and spoil.