How supermarkets deceive us: 10 tricks to know



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These tricks from marketers make you spend money on items you didn’t intend to buy.

1. Stimulate the appetite

The senses are the most active marketing allies. How many times have you heard, “Don’t go to the stores hungry!” Because the more you want to eat, the more unnecessary goods you buy. But even if you’re not hungry, supermarkets use a variety of ways to whet your appetite.

For example, the smell of fresh pastries is highly recommended: it encourages the buyer to spend more. Proper lighting also works well: in the display case, the products look festively bright, juicy and interesting.

But one of the most powerful ways to cause salivation and the associated need to buy something to chew on is free samples. First, they smell, they attract and you want to buy them. Second, after a free meal, you begin to feel compelled to thank the store. If you hadn’t tried this sausage, you wouldn’t even remember it, and now you have it in your cart and, of course, on the bill.

2. Hypnosis with music

You have heard cool music in the mall, pay attention to the max. Fast paced ringtones are thrown when it is important to increase sales. A study from the American Marketing Association shows that energetic music causes spontaneous purchases.

By unconsciously adapting to the tempo of the melody, we add more expensive items and even larger quantities to the cart.

On the other hand, slow music is also a trick. Stores specially selected compositions whose rhythm is much slower than the average heart rate. This forces people to stay longer on the shelves, spend more time in the commercial area and, as a result, spend more money. And even almost 30% more, according to an American marketing consultant and the book “Brainstorming! How marketers manipulate our minds and force us to buy what they want”, author Martin Lindstrom.

To protect yourself from the influence of such music, you can buy with headphones or use common sense.

3. Color scheme

People are “pushed” into stores whose walls and exteriors are painted in warm colors: red, orange, yellow. But inside, the color scheme is changing: the interior’s cool hues of blue and green force customers to spend more. CNN, based on a study published by Business Review titled “How Color Affects Your Costs,” says customers leave 15% more money in stores decorated in shades of blue than those whose walls and shelves are painted in warm colors .

4. Discount cards and loyalty programs

Do you think discount cards are designed to help you save? We have to admit that this is partially true. But far from that. The store receives much more at the expense of loyalty card holders than the latter for a variety of reasons.

The discount card links you to a specific shopping center

By choosing two absolutely identical stores, you will probably go to the one with a loyalty program.

The card is looking at you

This means that store sellers receive information about your buying habits. What price category do you prefer meat? How often do you buy dog ​​food? Do you like chocolate or desserts like fermented milk?

Thanks to the card, the supermarket knows everything about your costs and has the opportunity to influence them.

If you’ve ever received individual offers like “Buy chocolate for 3 euros and get 15% discount”, you know what it is. Of course, the proposal seems useful. But first it’s a lucrative store that has led you to buy more sweets than you are used to.

The card causes you to spend more

Many supermarkets award points for every euro spent on their network. These points can be converted into cash by paying with the points accumulated in the cashier. It is useful? On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, you yourself do not notice how the store forces you to spend more to accumulate more coveted points.

5. Commodity bait

“Buy 10 pieces for only 1 euro!” – Nice marketing trick. Many people get stuck on such an offer, so they buy more products than they need.

There are also more subtle manipulations. The store offers a popular product at a great price. For example, meat in roast season or a large package of branded diapers. It is a bait.

A product that is useful to the buyer is actively advertised for buyers to visit a specific supermarket. But if you’ve already walked into a diaper or meat store, why not buy something else? It is for these purchases that the store compensates its share.

The profit you lose on the bait is redeemed by the extra money that customers leave at the mall.

6. Additional products

You go to the store to buy a package of your favorite cookies and you will find baby chocolate and marshmallows on the same shelf next door. “Oh, how about a theme!”, Thinks and throws the three products in the bag. This is how these combinations work.

Some combinations are obvious, like shampoo and conditioner. Some are more delicate, such as disposable plastic plates and practical paper napkins. It seems to us that we decided to buy the napkins ourselves. In fact, his supposedly spontaneous purchase was planned in advance.

If your hand points to a product you weren’t planning to buy a second ago, ask yourself, “Do I really need it?”

7. Packages in which the food is perishable

Fresh bread is often sold in paper bags. Beautiful? Done. But this is not practical – the bread in such a package will quickly dry out, and you will have to go to the store again. This is also one of the marketing tricks. So when you return from the grocery store, try to repack your purchases so they stay fresh for as long as possible.

8. Value-added goods

Supermarkets play with prices, raising those products that they especially want to sell to eye level, and bringing cheap and less profitable items to the store almost at ground level. The effect of the “magic nine” is also very widespread, when a product priced at 99 cents seems more beneficial to the buyer than a product priced at 1 euro.

Well-selling products that explain to customers why they are worth taking. For example, a vegetable can be marked with the icon “grown in Lithuania”, which means that it will bring benefits to our farmers. Research shows that buyers are willing to pay up to 25% more for these products.

Another option is products with recipes that can be prepared from them. They seem more practical for buyers, so their level of sales is higher.

9. Branded reusable eco bags

Reusable Organic Baskets Instead of Plastic Bags – A Nifty Marketing Trick! First, they are branded: retailers put their logos on them, turning customers into walking advertisements. Second, they make shoppers feel safe in the mall: “Well, they care about the environment!” Third, they increase the average amount of checks.

Harvard Business School has published the results of a study showing that shoppers with brand-name eco-bags spend more. Overwhelmed by the nature of concern, they first prefer more expensive natural and organic products, and then buy unhealthy products as a reward for their virtue.

10. Drafts

At the checkout, sellers add expensive and not always necessary details: chocolates, jelly candies in brightly colored packages, ice cream, wipes, hand sanitizer gels, condoms, etc. You, tired of making decisions at the mall, are expected to relax at the checkout and buy a reward for yourself (or for a child no less tired than you). And works.

The little things at the checkout counters may seem like a customer concern to the store – you might have forgotten you need wet wipes, and here they are! But if you went back to the mall, you would find similar napkins that would cost 1.5 times less. Returns are inconvenient, so you buy products at an inflated price, again becoming a supplier of “golden wool” for the supermarket.

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