We buy groceries bypassing the "traps" of stores

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

"How much, how much ?!" - dumbfoundedly ask you at the checkout, trying to understand what went wrong in the process of goods. After all, everything was taken into account: the list was made, the price tags were checked, the “five for the price of four” shares were ignored … but the result is the same: the cart is full of products above the plan with prices higher than desired. What's the matter? The point is in the professionalism of the supermarket merchandisers who manipulate you, provoking unplanned spending. Let's evaluate an arsenal of tricks?

Golden mean

Let's start with a well-known fact - what the store needs to sell first will be placed at your eye level. Moreover, contrary to popular belief, these will not necessarily be goods with the highest possible price. The reasons why products of a particular brand end up on the middle shelves can be different: promoting a new brand, the need to sell an expiring product, partner promotions, and the like. But the fact remains - the height of the package placement plays a key role: according to statistics, simply moving a product from chest level to eye level increases the volume of its sales by 63%. So if you want to make an informed choice, do not be lazy to bend over and stand on tiptoe, looking for alternatives.

By the way, on a note to parents, lower shelves are not always a panacea. If you go to the supermarket with children, be prepared for unexpected bursts of children's shopping activity: products interesting to children will be located at the bottom, at the height of their growth. Numerous "want" and "buy" will increase the amount of the check many times … for which the calculation.

Caries effect

But do not rush to condemn a child's yielding to tricks. Your smart food choices are often not the same. There are many product presentation techniques that make you pay attention to something specific. How often, for example, have you taken something off the shelves just because it wasn’t enough? Consciously or not, you conducted an analysis: "other brands take worse, which means that the product remaining in the minimum quantity is the best offer." In fact, the deficit was created artificially. This technique is called the "caries effect": products are specially "thinned" so that you get the impression that some products are more popular than others.

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And that's not the only way to grab your attention. The arsenal of means of influence is replenished and modernized every year. The habits of buyers, reactions to stimuli, psychological characteristics of certain types of individuals are taken into account. In fact, your every trip to the store is participation in someone else's experiment. Suppose you stop responding to POS materials and no longer take goods from the middle shelves … well, okay, merchandisers will find a new way to break into your subconscious. For example, half-unpacked boxes with a certain product will be “thrown” in the middle of the aisle, creating the appearance of excitement: “Wow, this product is being disassembled so quickly that the store employees do not have time to put it out! Plus they just brought in, therefore, fresh!..”The herd instinct is triggered, and you, satisfied, rush to the cashier with the loot.

And the price tags? Do you carefully study them every time if you buy in the same supermarket? Most likely, you are used to the fact that discounted products are marked with a certain color, for example, red. And you will hardly notice that this color is used for some price tags with the regular price. No cheating! It's just that your "penchant" for red is being used. You keep thinking that you are making a bargain when in fact it is no longer happening.

The further the better

A separate topic of conversation is the placement of departments in certain parts of the store. You will not find a single supermarket in which key areas with the most in-demand products are located at the entrance. Rather, on the contrary, they will be at the maximum distance from it. This is done so that on the way to the cherished goal, the buyer gets acquainted with the rest of the assortment. As a result, it turns out that even if you dropped by to buy only a couple of product names, you will certainly be encouraged to buy a few additional items.

But suppose that you are not bastard and, in spite of everything, you intend to limit yourself only to the departments in which the products from your list are located: bread, milk, eggs, meat, and the like. Well, we must disappoint you, there is a high probability that you will have to run a lot: dairy products will be in one part of the supermarket, bread in another … at a considerable distance from the previous department. Did you catch the principle? The task is still the same - not to let you limit yourself to what was planned. You must carry as much as possible in your cart.

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By the way, about carts. They are evil! Nothing optimizes spending like not using them. Yes, it's convenient. Yes, they fit a lot. But that's the problem. You won't wander around in the store for hours with a basket: the weight is felt, the volume is limited. And the trolley is another matter … and the supermarket employees understand this very well. Have you ever noticed that the number of ordinary baskets miraculously decreases during rush hour? But analogs with wheels are a dime a dozen.

Well, time to develop immunity. We instill a number of useful habits: we go to the store with a list, choose products taking into account the “golden mean”, do not rush to buy “scarce” products, recheck information on discount price tags, abandon carts in favor of baskets and … do not turn on the “autopilot” the packaging process.

The main thing to remember is that we are not deceived, but only used by our psychological characteristics. In order not to be manipulated, it is enough to observe the old rule: "Measure seven times, cut once." Or more simply … don't forget to think!