Insiders have revealed the crafty tricks used by supermarkets to make customers spend more on their grocery shopping.
In a fascinating thread shared on question and answer site Quora, food market workers revealed the ways in which shoppers are encouraged to part with their money.
Ariel Dreyfus, a Business Administration student from South Carolina who analysed their behaviour, revealed stores will avoid placing clocks around the aisles, much like casinos, to avoid reminding customers of the time.
Meanwhile, British assistant psychologist Aishah Hannan noted the lighting is brighter around the fruit and vegetable aisle to make them appear ‘bright and healthy’ and essentials such as milk are placed towards the back of the store.
She also revealed that stores use music and colour to influence the mood, with slow music encouraging shoppers to relax their pace and yellow said to encourage hunger.
Elsewhere, Kimberley Susan, a British social media worker for Instagram, confessed that Black Friday deals weren’t as great as they appeared, explaining only the items that are coming to the end of their shelf life or not selling well will go on sale.
Interestingly Kimberley also revealed that the pharmacy may take extra long to process your order to give you more time to browse around the store and pick up extra products
In a thread shared to Quora which analysed supermarket’s tricks to make customers spend more, British assistant psychologist Aishah Hannan revealed stores will avoid placing clocks around the aisles, much like casinos, to avoid reminding customers of the time
Aishah also revealed that stores use music to influence the mood, with slow music encouraging shoppers to relax their pace
She explained that stores use colour to grab shoppers’ attention, with red used for sales, yellow said to encourage hunger and blue used to encourage trust
Ariel Dreyfus, a Business Administration student from South Carolina, noted that the lighting is brighter around the fruit and vegetable aisle to make them appear ‘bright and healthy’
Kimberley Susan, a British social media worker for Instagram, confessed that Black Friday deals weren’t as great as they appeared, explaining that only the items that are coming to the end of their shelf life go on sale
British product manager Anita Pyke argued that placing children’s seats in a large shopping trolley or even providing fun cars for kids is just another way to encourage parents to spend longer in the store and spend more
British assistant psychologist Aishah Hannan explained that essential items like milk are always at the end of a store so customers are forced to walk past other food items to get them
Aishah Hannan from England added that stores will always give at least 1p off the price so it looks like it’s a pound cheaper in the thread of supermarket tricks
Arun, Indian entrepreneur, argued that the reason Ikea make their stores so hard to navigate, is so that shoppers are encouraged to throw random purchases into their trolley to avoid the tricky task of retracing their footsteps
Aishah Hannan, a Business Administration student from South Carolina went on to reveal that grocery stores will place the sweets at eye level for children whereas the dark chocolate will be in an adult’s eyeline
Kimberley Susan, a British social media worker for Instagram, agreed with the ‘no clocks’ theory, explaining that stores hope you will lose track of the time and spend more
Interestingly Kimberley also revealed that the pharmacy may take extra long to process your order to give you more time to browse around the store and pick up extra products
The social media worker also added that stores will adapt music according to the atmosphere, playing slower music if the shop is empty and there is more time to browse
Ariel Dreyfus, a Business Administration student from South Carolina, revealed that stores will always be happy to give you store credit to lure you back to potentially spend more money
Indian retail expert Dayne Fernandes argued that the essentials are scattered everywhere to force customers to see as much as possible, and free samples are only there to make you spend extra cash