I firmly believe, after many bookstore visits and video store visits, people are just completely apathetic towards any genre they don't have a personal interest for. Much like critics. It is rare that the management in either business will actually inspect where movies or books are located. There may be exceptions, but I've yet to see any.

A prime example is a consignment bookstore I used to visit. They had a vast collection of old and out-of-print books. The people working in the store were avid (frenzied) romance fans. They had posters up everywhere, even romance books separated by theme. Even erotica had a special place. Westerns and children's books were tolerable and adequately classified.

Thriller, horror, contemporary mystery, etc. were all lumped together in a section merely labeled "weird."

I, too, have seen rampant mistakes when shelving books or movies where they belong. I don't believe it's from customer opinion or designation at all. I honestly don't think there's any "professional" genre standard right now.

You would think businesses would want more clarity and classification, but that doesn't seem to be valued any more than free items for the customer. As long as they profit from it, they don't seem to care.

Just my thoughts.