Money, money, money. I often wonder how many times I hear that word on a daily basis. Money is what makes this world go ‘round, and like any other business out there, retail stores exist to take your money.
You go in, you shop, you spend money, and everyone walks out happy. But, what you didn’t realize in your recent journey through Target or Walmart was all the little tricks that these retailers put in place to get you to spend more cash. Now, I am not out to make retailers look like evil money traps…I just found these points rather interesting and somewhat ingenuous – but hey, they work.
Here are my top 5 favorites from this article from lifehack.org –
1. They put shopping carts at the entrance
At grocery stores this makes sense but at retail stores? Well there is a psychological reason. In the 1930’s, they started putting them near the entrance to inspire you to make larger purchases. You can’t buy a 50-inch TV if you don’t have anything to carry it in, right? You’re also less likely to buy a large, expensive item if you have to go find something or someone to carry it for you. Thus, they make it nice and easy to find transportation for your large purchases.
2. They put the high profit items in the front of the store
Have you ever walked into the grocery store and immediately seen things like baked goods, floral items, and stuff like that? There’s a reason. Bread and flowers make grocery stores the highest profits. They draw your eyes to these items because they smell and look good in hopes that you’ll buy them. Not all stores practice this but most grocery stores will. It’s all about putting your biggest money maker up front first!
3. They will put the essential items toward the back of the store
That way you have to walk through the entire store to get to them. That’s why milk, meat, cheese, and similar items all rest almost exclusively against the back wall. You have to walk down various aisles to get to them and to get back to the registers in the front. This exposes you to a bunch of the store’s inventory. It doesn’t take a study to know that if you look at enough stuff in a grocery store that you’ll probably buy something else other than what you came in to buy.
4. You are being conditioned to walk up and down all of the aisles
A study has shown that stores try to condition you to travel down all of the aisles so that you’ll continue doing it even after you get everything on your list. Each aisle has only a part of a meal in it. To get all of the meal, you have to travel down multiple aisles. Since no store has a standardized set up, you have to travel up and down all of the aisles to find all of the ingredients. Eventually you’ll start doing it out of force of habit even after you’ve completed your shopping list.
5. They invented vani-sizing
Vani-sizing is a real thing that stores do. They make cloths bigger but put them in a smaller size. If you look here you’ll see that a size 36 pants (men’s) actually measures a 41 when you buy them at Old Navy. When you try on a size that you think is too small and then it magically fits, you feel good about yourself and you’re wildly more likely to buy that clothing item. Practically every retailer does it so if you measure a 40 and you fit into a 36, rest assured that 36 is actually a 40.
Next time you are out shopping, keep an eye out for these sneaky tricks. You might just be able to save a few dollars here and there now that you know these retailers intentions. Or, if you’re anything like me, you will probably still fill up your cart when you only went to the store for a gallon of milk.
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Info contained in this article from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/money/15-sneaky-retail-tricks-that-make-you-spend-more-stop-falling-for-them.html
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