Bring back the Chametz!

So I went grocery shopping last night for our regular weekly shabbos shopping at Brach's and was very unpleasantly surprised. It seems that although Pesach is still three weeks away, Brach's has decided to start stocking up on matzo-meal and potato starch and send the brownie mixes packing. This translates into a year of learning the location of every foodstuff item in the store - down to which side of which aisle - going out the window. My neatly organized shopping list is completely useless because nothing is where it's supposed to be. Shopping took twice as long as usual because I had to wander up and down isles of institution-sized cans of peaches and packages of egg-white cookies looking for barley and kishke. The good news is that I found almost everything on my list. I'll be sure to let our guests know, however, how lucky they are to be eating kosher-for-pesach cholent...nevermind the barley - the kishke is made with potato starch.

Why can't they leave the chametz on the shelves for just another week? I took an informal poll among other shoppers and found them to be just as frustrated as I was. Do Jews not need to eat in the weeks leading up to pesach? Maybe Brach's is doing this as a public service - help people lose weight before the stuff-yourself-until-you-feel-like-you're-gonna-burst-and-have-to-upgrade-to-the-next-suit-size holiday.