Shocking supermarket tactics

When I first learnt of supermarkets’ sneaky tactics to get us to spend more money, it made me laugh with shock!

Who knew so much thought went into subliminally manipulating people all in the name of profit – mock-up stores, headsets tracking activity in the brain, glasses showing eye movements, software tracking shopping behaviours, overhead cameras, etc.  

And here’s naïve me thinking supermarkets were so kind and caring, concerned with my well-being.

Rookie error. The strategies used by supermarkets are truly fascinating.

Comfortingly, once you become aware of these, I have found that they become less effective - not achieving their intended purpose.

Soak it up mes amies because the following is FACT.

·       Store layout - I feel slightly offended (jokes) that I’m being compared to a rat in a maze…Supermarket layouts are organised in a race track/rat maze style layout because studies have shown that we naturally like to go up and down in succession without any thought involved. This makes us walk through the entire store, and to the satisfaction of the supermarket, hopefully we pick up some unplanned extras along the way.

·       Scattering important items – this one really rang true for me. Recently, I literally had the thought, “Gee, I feel so exhausted trying to find meat and milk in supermarkets at the moment. Am I getting unfit?”. Haha, nope! Supermarkets have intentionally scattered our essential items (bread, milk, eggs, cereal, coffee, pasta, rice, beans, meat) to purposefully send us down every aisle, again, hoping that we pick up other items along the way.

·       Shelves – items aren’t randomly placed on shelves. No way! Eye level items receive more attention and so products with the highest profit margin are placed here. Children get to stare at sweets and sugary cereals (at 3 to 4 feet high) and anything else tempting, that they can then beg their parents for, which of course, supermarkets are betting parents will give in to. Bottom shelves are reserved for cheap, bargain items where people have to put their backs out to reach and, top shelves are for more expensive, less essential items. Did you know that companies actually pay for prime positions in supermarkets!

·       Shopping trolleys – these have increased in size so that we subconsciously feel the need to fill the unsettling void that lays before us with more items.

·       Music – supermarkets play only happy music (makes sense) to make us feel good and therefore spend more money. Also, they choose up-tempo songs during peak shopping periods to get people out of the store faster so that more people can come in and spend and, slower tempo music during off peak periods to make people stay longer and thus spend more.

·       Smells – freshly baked bread and a hot roasted chicken mmmm. Supermarkets want us to shop with our sense of smell rather than our grocery list.

·       Flowers are placed at the entrance to make us feel happy and welcome, causing us to spend more.

·       Associated items are placed in the same position, e.g. “I need a new toothbrush, oh, there’s the toothpaste, I should probably get some as well”.

·       Some supermarkets spray fruit and vegetables with droplets of water which we then associate with freshness and thus, are more likely to buy.

·       Bananas are now produced to be a very exact shade of yellow. Research has shown that this particular shade is most appealing to our human eye and that we also associate this with feelings of happiness.

·       Chocolates and magazines positioned at checkouts, hoping that people waiting in line will buy these.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I enjoy going to the supermarket and I do feel oddly happy being there. But, I am aware. If I do deviate from my grocery list, at least it was a conscious and well informed decision. Now yours will be too!

Image credit www.graceclare.com