When you go to the supermarket, you may get the impression that everything is systematically organized by food type, for your convenience, with some “specials” or discounted products typically near the front. But actually, the planning and strategizing that goes into supermarket floor plans, shelving and design are a lot more detailed than you likely realize. Here are the 14 key ways grocery stores are getting you to spend more money.
1. Locating basic essential items at the back of the store
Putting the most necessary products, like milk, at the back corners of the store encourages those customers who just need one or two things to wander into the store’s depths and be exposed to all the other merchandise available.
2. Locating fresh food at the front of the store
Colorful fresh fruit and vegetables, baked bread and flowers give customers a great first impression of a store when they first enter. The nice smells and the vibrant colors also put customers in a good mood and make them more open to spending money.
3. Convincing you they care
A lot of retail stores are now supplying or selling reusable bags. If these stores genuinely cared about the environment, they’d get rid of their plastic bags altogether as well as those energy-guzzling open-air refrigerators. In fact, the reusable bags give a customer the sensation that they are doing something right, in turn making them feel that they are justified in indulging a bit, as a reward. Research by Harvard Business School found that these reusable bags have a big influence on how money people are willing to spend.
4. Pricing manipulation
Stores have a number of techniques up their sleeve to convince customers they are getting a great deal when they aren’t. Comparative pricing involves putting a normally-priced item next to an expensive one, making customers feel like they are saving money on the former when actually it is the latter that is overpriced.
Charm prices involve the power of prices ending in the number nine. One author analyzed eight different studies (he really should have found a ninth!) on charm prices and found that on average, they increased sales by 24 percent compared to rounded price points. Premium pricing is in some ways the opposite of comparative pricing and involves setting a price artificially high in order to make a product seem trending or high quality. And there is a whole gamut of other tricks like these being used!
5. Refunds aren’t there for the customer
The opportunity for refunds and returns may seem like basic, reasonable customer care, but in fact, this is a strategy to take the risk out of the purchase process. Buy that thing you’re not sure you want — after all, you can always return it (but probably won’t bother)!
6. The maze effect
Stores will often adjust aspects of their layout, forcing customers to wander around more than they initially intended. The arrangement of different types of products also isn’t as logical as you’d assume, leaving customers disorientated and more at the mercy of their whims. (So that’s why they put the canned beans with the cooking oil, and separate the ketchup from the other sauces!)
7. Huge shopping carts
One store I use sometimes simply doesn’t supply hand baskets — if you want to buy a few items there, you’re obliged to use a giant cart. But a few items quickly look lonely in a cart that size, and you figure that while you’re at it, you may as well get a few other things. Shopping carts have tripled in size since the 1970s, and that has been deliberate.
8. Happy sounds and smells
Uplifting music puts people in a good mood, while slow music also slows them down, seeing them spend more time in the store, and therefore more likely to buy more.
9. Free samples
Do you ever feel guilty after being given a free sample and not buying anything? That’s done on purpose. Yes, the brand wants you to taste the food and to be open to a new product you haven’t tried before but, more importantly, that guilty feeling encourages a lot of shoppers to buy.
10. End caps to upsell
End caps are the neat piles of products at the end of aisles. Just by association, customers will often assume these items are on special, even if no sign states that. Stores also use this space to pair items together — such as crackers and dip, or bacon and eggs — as a way of upselling.
11. Shelving hierarchy
Yes, they’ve even thought out what products should go on which shelves. The most expensive products are placed near the middle — at eye level, while products that appeal to kids are located lower, at their eye level. If you want the cheapest deals, you’ll have to bend down and read the labels right at floor level.
12. Taking advantage of decision fatigue
After dealing with all these little manipulations, not to mention the reality of deciding between ten brands of cream cheese that all look to be the same thing, you’re often exhausted by the time you get to the checkout. Stores take advantage of that and display spontaneous-buy items like candy right there, for you to stare at as you wait in line for 15 minutes.
13. Color schemes
Like music and smells, colors also have an impact on customers’ moods. It turns out that warm colors will draw you into the store, while cooler interior colors encourage you to spend more. One study found that a blue color scheme increased store profits by 15 percent compared to an orange interior color scheme.
14. Limited offers
The sense of urgency that comes with a product that might run out, or whose price will soon increase, pressures people to buy things they weren’t planning to.
Keep an eye out for these tricks next time you’re at the grocery store!
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— Tamara Pearson