Store Layout
You are being manipulated into buying more than you want, need or can afford before you even enter the grocery store.
Marketing experts have decreed that customers should be met with an uncluttered, as spacious as possible entrance which serves as a “decompression zone.” This serves to create a positive first impression, encouraging you to relax and shop, shop, shop. They want you to stay longer and spend more.
This will lead you directly to the produce section. A 2021 study by the University of Southampton (England) found that placing healthy items, such as fruits and vegetables, near the grocery store entrance led to an additional 10,000 purchases per store per week. They also discovered that when confectionery items were removed from high-traffic areas, such as checkouts and end caps, sales decreased by 1,500 items per week, per store.
Inevitably, staples such as bread, eggs and dairy will be placed at the back of the store, forcing you to pass endless products they hope you will buy, even though you only need milk.
The most expensive items are at eye level, between the average person’s waist and shoulders, while high-margin items appealing to children are at their eye level. This is where the typical individual will look first. If you select from this area, you are paying the multinational corporations’ advertising budgets. Clever consumers choose from higher and lower shelves for better buys.
Caution should be exercised around end caps, which are located at the end of each aisle. This stuff is usually, but not always, on sale. More often, the items on special are mixed in with complimentary products that are at regular or even inflated prices.
If the shelves are depleted of advertised specials, try the end caps. And it doesn’t hurt to ask a staff member if there is more product in the back.
Be especially attentive in the checkout area, which retailers call the “impulse zone.” Even your delay here is being manipulated, this time by an “unforeseeable” shortage of cashiers, again increasing the store’s bottom line.
Since there’s not much to do while you wait to give away your hard-earned money, it’s difficult to avoid the temptation of sweets and other snacks, as well as various publications. And, of course, those chocolate bars are deliberately placed at children’s eye levels.
Grocery store layouts are based on psychology and have been studied ad nauseum. Tactics apply to shelf arrangement, product placement, lighting and even color and scent strategies. These methods are carefully crafted to appeal to our subconscious desires and encourage us to buy more.
Your movement through the store is also controlled. Wide, clear pathways are designed to prevent congestion (and hopefully “aisle rage”) and provide a smooth, relaxing choreographed flow for your shopping experience.
They offer a loop or grid layout that guides you through the store in specific patterns. This allows for maximum exposure to more products, again encouraging you to buy, buy, buy.
Other psychological triggers they use to convince you to buy more include selective product placement. Relaxing music encourages you to proceed through the store as slowly as possible, and special lighting is used to make products appear more desirable.
Retailers are conning you with a Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) mentality with limited-time offers and other scarcity tricks, such as flash sales, while-supplies-last and “buy one, get one” (BOGO) marketing tactics. It can affect your purchasing decisions if you believe that an item may not be available later. Also, our experience has shown that the first item is often priced at a higher-than-usual price, lessening the bargain.
Your defense is to be aware of their tactics, always be watching, checking and looking high and low.
Markdowns
Items that are nearing their “best-before” or expiry date are usually marked down by 30 to 50 percent. They are not for everyone, but they are incredible bargains.
But be prepared, as markdowns must be consumed or preserved immediately. Scoring these items is also likely to affect your meal plan and, in turn, your shopping list.
No matter how tempting it may be to scoop up every single markdown, remember that if you don’t consume it, that is tantamount to throwing cash in the trash and eliminating any and all savings you may have gained.
If you don’t know where your grocery store’s markdown locations are, just ask an employee. You should also ask when each department marks down items so you can be first to score big. Prices are often slashed just before store opening.
The produce section always seems to have markdowns for the savvy shopper, and a little imagination goes a long way.
You are most likely to score quality markdowns when a produce item is in season. The merchandise is plentiful and will be removed from normal displays sooner.
You can use overripe and bruised apples to create applesauce, pies, crumbles or cobblers. Slightly aged berries are great for baking and smoothies, and can be easily flash-frozen, allowing you to use them year-round.
Freckled bananas are perfect for banana bread and smoothies. You can easily store the fruit for later by breaking each banana in half and storing it well-wrapped in the freezer.
Wrinkled peppers can be grilled and skinned before slicing. Store these in jars filled with olive oil and use them in pasta, salads and sandwiches. Bruised eggplant can be cleaned, sliced, and roasted on a cookie sheet for use in sandwiches and other dishes, such as lasagna.
Avoid items with signs of decay, large bruises or soft spots.
Day-old bakery products are another common markdown. It rankles people to realize that the loaf of bread they stopped to pick up just the night before is now available for half-price. Other tempting treats that are “close-dated” or within days of their expiration date will also be substantially reduced. And you won’t be able to tell the difference if you heat the treats.
Clever consumers can scope out all kinds of other bargains in the meat, deli, pharmacy and housewares sections. You are also likely to find a scratch and dent section hidden somewhere which will contain shelf items that are either discontinued, close-dated or simply about to get fresh labelling.