There are several “tricks” or strategies that supermarkets use to get customers to spend more money.
We even know how to identify a few, but the truth is that we repeatedly “fall” into the tricks supermarkets use to buy more products.
Also read: 10 tricks to save money on groceries
One of the solutions to avoid paying more for a product is to compare prices between supermarkets. One example is the free Super Save application, now available for Android and iOS, which allows you to search thousands of items from supermarkets such as Auchan, Minipreço, Continente and Pingo Doce. But there’s more: with the consumer in mind, Deco has launched a tool that allows you to find out which supermarket in your area has the lowest prices. And in the main Portuguese cities, Continente is leading (information consulted in the Deco Proteste simulator on November 3, 2022).
And if some of these supermarket techniques and strategies to get you to spend more money are even very obvious, there are others that are much more discreet and manage to hit their target. To protect yourself from these “tricks” and not spend more than you should, keep up to date with the most common.
cart size
The shopping cart may even be designed to help us make the purchases for the month, but its size is also a way of encouraging us to fill it. Because the basket is large, we can’t see the bottom when shopping, so we “ignore” some products that we have already placed in the cart.
As long as there is room in the cart, you may be tempted to continue placing products, resulting in a higher bill at checkout.
Fresh food at the entrance
Roast chicken or bread just out of the oven are just a few examples of fresh produce that can usually be found right at the entrance. The smell will attract customers. Not only will we want to buy these products, but our hunger will also increase, which will make us spend more money (one of the golden tips for saving at the supermarket is not to go shopping on an empty stomach).
Prices with €0.99
This strategy is one of the most commonly seen, but it still works. Prices ending in $0.99 make us spend more money. This is because customers look at the first number – the unit of value in euros – but not at the cents, so a product priced at 9.99 euros is “perceived” as a price of 9 euros instead of 10 euros.
products at eye level
Also, the level at which products are placed on the shelves is not arbitrary. The most expensive items are usually eye level on the shelves for most consumers, while the cheaper items are either too low or too high. This is yet another strategy that leads us to buy these products and spend more.
Also, it is common to place products such as toys further down to attract the attention of the youngest.
Distribution of essential products
Another commonly used technique in supermarkets is placing essential goods at the bottom of the trading surface, for example butchers, fishmongers, bread or water. So you will have to go through the entire store to reach them and therefore you are more likely to buy other, non-essential products.
product combinations
There are absolutely foolproof and not harmless product combinations that make us spend more money. For example, suppose you go to the liquor hall to buy beer. Savory snacks or other snacks are very common, because these are products that go perfectly with beer.
There are no clocks or windows
Have you noticed that there are no watches in supermarkets? It is goal-oriented, because in this way we as a customer lose track of time more quickly. That’s also why most of these surfaces don’t have windows, because that way we can’t control the sunset, for example.
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All supermarkets have items on offer, be it for fairs (baby, school, products from the region, etc.), or themes (Christmas, Easter, summer holidays). These products are always placed at the entrance of the store, so we will buy items that we didn’t even intend to buy because we didn’t expect to find them.
Products next to the boxes
On reaching the checkout, while waiting to pay, supermarkets still manage to spend more than we expected. Chocolate, chewing gum, energy bars, magazines are just some of the products usually found next to cash registers.
We ended up taking these products almost as if they didn’t “weigh” on our final bill.
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