Crafty supermarket strategies: How stores maximize your spending

On average, Canadians shop at least once a week, and many visit the store daily. Usually, the plan is to buy a few products and leave as quickly as possible. How does it look in reality? Instead of a symbolic grocery bag, we leave the market with a full cart and a bill totaling several tens of dollars. Why does this happen? It’s all because of the psychological tricks we are constantly subjected to. Want to know them?

Let's start from the moment you are at home and see that you are running out of a product—let's say bread, which you always eat for breakfast. Before leaving for the store, you see a promotional leaflet on the kitchen table with a big sign: "Promotion on tangerines." Initially, you were only supposed to buy bread, but since tangerines are so cheap, maybe it's worth showing interest.

Before entering the store, you are greeted by a row of carts, which are too big for your needs, but with no other option, you pick one and head into the store. Already on your way, you feel that the cart does not work properly. The wheel moves gets stuck and does not work smoothly. You are significantly slowed down and have to shuffle between aisles slowly. At this very moment, the store has you in its grip.

The slower you walk, the more products catch your eye. At the end of each aisle, you are greeted by some promotion, and as it goes with people, discounts tempt us greatly. Gradually, you fill your cart with unnecessary goods just because they are priced well. Moreover, a huge basket gives the impression that there is little in it, and you can boldly add more items to fill it.

Have you noticed that supermarkets lack windows and clocks? Strategists intentionally want to keep you in the store, and seeing darkness outside might make you want to finish shopping quickly. Another psychological trick is calm and relaxing music. Thanks to it, you become slower and walk longer between the aisles, and shopping becomes more enjoyable.

Pay attention to the arrangement of products on the shelves. What should sell "fastest" and is most expensive is usually at your eye level. Cheap products are placed low on the shelves, where few people look. The rule has one exception! Expensive sweets are placed lower so children have easier access to them. Clever, right? Such tricks end your shopping with bags full of items you don’t need. Sometimes, we even forget about the item we came for and return home without it or go to the store again, and then the story returns to square one...