To avoid unnecessary spending and preserve your purchasing power, learn to detect the psychological techniques of supermarkets to push you to fill your cart more than necessary.
When you push your cart through the well-organized aisles of a supermarket, you are probably convinced that you are only taking what you need. However, at the checkout, you often end up with more products than expected. This phenomenon is not due to chance, but rather to subtle techniques put in place by the brands to encourage you to browse each aisle and fill your cart without even realizing it. These strategies exploit your subconscious to push you to make unplanned or even impulsive purchases. And it is important to be aware of this to avoid unnecessary spending and regain your freedom as a consumer.
One of the first techniques is the layout of the store. In fact, the organization of products is designed to guide you through the aisles in such a way that you cover a larger area, thus increasing the chances of coming across items that you would not have thought of. For example, you may have noticed that essential products like milk and eggs are deliberately placed far from the entrance, so that you are forced to cross other aisles to get to them. Stores also take care to fill the edges of the aisles with many unhealthy food options, like snacks and sodas, to make sure that you come across them on your way.
To ensure that all customers, including the most loyal ones, are forced to go around the store, some brands do not hesitate to regularly change the position of the products and the organization of their shelves, so that they can never really find their way around… And continue to go around the store. They will then have the opportunity to come across promotions and special offers, which are formidable traps. Indeed, the “two for the price of one” or immediate reductions on the second product create an irresistible illusion of savings. In reality, these offers often push you to buy more than necessary, so as not to “miss out” on a good deal.
To encourage you to buy, supermarkets also use sensory tricks. Indeed, smells are a powerful stimulant for your desires. For example, the smell of hot bread emanating from the bakery located near the entrance creates a warm atmosphere that whets your appetite and therefore encourages you to satisfy it. Similarly, the soft and rhythmic music that accompanies your steps is there to slow down your pace and encourage you to spend more time in the store.
Finally, the layout of the products on the shelves plays a key role. Thus, each shelf is organized in such a way as to encourage you to buy the products on which the store makes the most margin. The latter are always located at eye level, so that consumers in a hurry can easily grab them. Similarly, the items placed near the checkouts are intended to provoke last-minute impulse purchases, with sweets, magazines or even drinks. The brands take advantage of the waiting time to capture your attention, playing on the fact that you are less vigilant and more likely to give in to a little temptation. Now you know!