Ever wonder why when you dash into a supermarket just to pick up a loaf of bread you end up with almost a shopping cart full of goods? Staff Reporter Glenda Anderson explains tricks of the trade that supermarkets use to get you to buy more.
FAITH EDWARDS stood in front of the freezer at Hi-Lo supermarket in Liguanea, St. Andrew, last Wednesday, staring down at bologna and salami slices, trying to make up her mind about which to buy.
Although she does major shopping every two weeks, a quick errand had brought her to the store in mid-afternoon on her day off. One aisle led to another and here she was with an almost full shopping basket.
"It happens to me all the time," she explains.
"Today, for instance, I came in here for waffles, then I'm saying to myself 'extra milk wouldn't hurt, and I'm going to work tomorrow, I'm going to need sandwiches, so I'm going to get a bread' - and the list just keeps growing."
WEAKENED RESISTANCE
One supermarket, in particular, weakens her resistance.
"MegaMart (Portmore, St. Catherine, and Waterloo Road, St. Andrew). It's all that space and the two-seater shopping carts. That's the best thing ever because when you're shopping with the children they usually get very tired and miserable having to walk around so much."
The main pull, however, is the wide range of items, occasional lower costs and the one-stop shopping approach, adds Edwards.
"If you have a good list you're fine. I mean, you could just go there and do everything. The layout is very, very attractive. And then after you've finished everything you just kind of wander down to the clothing section."
That's the plan. The set up of a supermarket does not happen by chance. The layout and design of the aisles, placement of items on the shelves, even the music are done to have customers buy more.
SUBTLE TRICKS
Edwards has been following the food trail, a network of subtle tricks of the trade, that has shoppers salivating for what the next aisle has to offer. Before the end of their trip, most shoppers would have walked from one end of the store to the other, buying more than they intended.
Arlene Tibby says she used to get caught, wandering from one aisle to the next and picking up things she hadn't intended to buy. "What I try to do now is work with a budget. Some things I buy every week. Some, like snacks and meat I buy every two weeks. So I've learnt how to control it."
James (who did not want to reveal his name) was using neither a shopping list nor basket, says he never gets caught.
"I don't do impulse buying, I use my head. I come in with what I want in my head and that's what I buy," he says, dismissing the suggestion that he could be distracted or influenced by subtle manipulations of layout and design.
Still, researchers at the website clearchoicehp.com say supermarkets "have learned how to entice consumers with smell, targeted shelf placement, and psychological subterfuge," and are using this knowledge in increasingly creative and subtle ways.
A CAREFULLY CRAFTED PLAN TO MAKE YOU WALK THROUGH THE ENTIRE STORE
Layout, for instance, is a never ending tweaking act with some stores literally changing face every week.
Store managers like SuperPlus Liguanea's Jeremy Owen say it's part of a deliberate, carefully crafted strategy.
"A supermarket's flow is never, ever by chance. Most supermarkets have a floor pattern that allows the consumer to walk the entire store."
As a result managers place emphasis on what goes where, how it looks, and even who operates it.
"For instance, persons generally judge a store by its perishables, so it is important to us that the items are fresh, they are dated (manufacture or expiry dates in place) and the attendant is polite and pleasant," says Owen.
"As a retailer you must have an idea of who your customers are, and the features specific to your location, so that everything is then designed to offer them what they need."
CATERING TO THE THREE TYPES OF SHOPPERS
Recent shopper surveys have helped supermarkets narrow down the task of offering consumers what they need.
Besides the already established fact that women are primary shoppers while most men dash in, get what they need and get out, the experts have identified distinct shopping types.
"Research has shown us that there are three types of shoppers, says Owen:
1. The time challenged who leave work at a certain time to pick up what they want in a limited time;
2. The economisers are the customers who know what they want before they get to the supermarket. "They are the ones who will turn up with a list ready to compare prices. They have coupons and an idea of the discounts and specials that we offer."
3. Then there are the care-free shoppers who would come in to pick up a few items but are not fussy in terms of price.
"You must be able to take care of each," Owen says.
That's where the details like layout come in, with everything placed 'just so' to meet the needs of the speedy shopper while leading the care-free around the store.
Sean Battick from MegaMart's Waterloo Road location says while the store, which is modelled on the United States-based Costco, features an open plan, little extras also ensure that customers stay inside.
"For a lot of people, shopping is a family affair, that's why we have a food court, then there's the bakery section, ATMs and our newly opened pharmacy. The idea is that people can move around and shop in comfort, with something for each person," Battick says.
TRICKS OF THE TRADE
In many stores, meat, poultry and seafood are displayed along the entire back length of the store, ensuring that customers see them every time they emerge from an aisle.
To reach the dairy (refrigerated) section shoppers have to walk through the entire supermarket, hopefully tossing a few extra items into their cart along the way.
Gregory Chin, financial controller with New Kingston's John R Wong Supermarket, also adds baked goods to that list. He notes that most people pick up bread towards the end of their shopping trip after going through a number of aisles. The position of breads and other baked goods toward the back of the store is a constant reminder. ('Get bread, remember to get bread'.)
Items are also sometimes taken off the regular display shelves and set apart as 'specials' or bargain buys on gondolas or endcaps. This is done to give the impression of difference or to make them stand out.
At MegaMart, the Mega Boulevard (section before the clothing division) serves as a pullout area, and not exclusively a discount section. "It's where we put new arrivals, specials or when we just have to move some things around," explains Battick.
"The idea is part of a larger marketing move. From the opening of the store it's always been a strategy to place certain things to boost sales or to make people more aware of what is available. You'll find that some things sell better in one place than they do elsewhere," he says.
Cross-merchandising placing related items close to each other in a kind of buddy system is key to a supermarket's layout as it encourages impulse buying.
"It could be as simple as fruit on top of the meat fridge, milk close to cereals or across from the rum/liqueur aisle, eggs with dairy, or seasoning and salad dressing next to vegetables," Chin explains. "It's very important."
EYE LEVEL WITH THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Even the placement of goods on a shelf is deliberate.
"Most things are sold at eye level, so the dominant players actually fight for that spot, with the smaller players forced to the lower shelves," explains Chin. The website clearchoice.com calls it the '5 feet 4 inches rule' where "the most expensive items in the store are just about 5 feet 4 inches off the floor the eye level of the average woman (the primary shopper)." Marketing experts know that people tend to reach for what is right in front of them.
"For children the most expensive children's cereal are at a kid's eye level, while lesser-priced generic and bagged cereals are way off to the left or higher up," says the website.
OTHER SHELVING TRICKS
The most popular items in any aisle are almost always in the middle rather than at the end. Shoppers are therefore forced to walk down the aisle, hopefully picking up a few other items along the way.
The more expensive item is almost always to the right. Merchandisers know that most shoppers are right-handed and so they go out of their way to put items they especially want you to buy to the right of a popular product.
In addition, some markets have pulled out all the stops, adding little extras ATM, restaurant or snack counter, bakery, pharmacy to get customers inside their stores.
A supermarket is no longer simply your little corner store.
BEST TIME TO SHOP
Unless you really need the crowd support, go shopping (early) on Tuesday through Thursday, says Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) representative Raymond Pryce.
"Not necessarily on a Monday, because by then stocks would have been depleted from the weekend, and most deliveries (restocking) would have been completed by Wednesday. If you are working, try to go before 3:00 p.m., but decide carefully because you don't want to have groceries off the 'fridge for too long before you get home."
Fridays and Saturdays are definitely high traffic days but if you must, go early in the morning as soon as the store opens and before all the fresh, choice produce is taken.
The best items are set out first, one supermarket staffer says, with mixtures (old and new) set out for later when customers get desperate and are willing to take anything.
