From the category archives:

Supermarket Pricing Tricks

Psychological Supermarket Tricks That Make Us Spend

October 4, 2009

I have to hand it to them. Grocery stores are the masters of consumer psychology. How else can you explain walking into the grocery store for one item and coming out with a basket full of stuff?
In some ways they remind me of carnival pitchmen who’ve refined their sales pitches to perfection. In the process [...]

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How Food Packaging Illusions Cost You Money

August 4, 2009

I’m always amazed at how food companies alter the packaging and appearance of their products to entice us to make a purchase.
A recent example of this occurred with my regular orange juice purchase. A few months ago while browsing my local grocery store I came across a special promotional case featuring a new variety of [...]

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Supermarket Speed Bumps That Get You to Spend More

July 8, 2009

In today’s tough economy many consumers are now shopping with a grocery list to help save money. They realize a list focuses their shopping behavior like a laser, helping them avoid ever present, but costly, impulse purchases.
Yet supermarkets realize that shoppers are increasingly entering their stores with a singular purpose in mind – to grab [...]

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Why Supermarket Pricing is Designed to Test You Mentally

May 23, 2009

Ever wonder why you’re seeing a proliferation of strange pricing at your local supermarket – 3 for $5, 4 for $7, 5 for $5.50, buy 2 get 1 free?
Much of it is related to our mental processing ability and the time of day. 
Let me explain.
We all have our hours of peak mental performance.  For some [...]

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The Sneakiest Grocery Store Trick Yet?

February 16, 2009

I’ve been writing about how supermarkets are masters of using consumer psychology to get us to buy more than we need to. They frequently use our own assumptions against us.
Take the bulk size version of many products. We assume that we save more when we buy larger sized packages. Yet, grocery stores sometimes use this [...]

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Watch out for the Supermarket “Limit Sale” Trick

January 23, 2009

Grocery stores have become masters of consumer psychology and use their knowledge about our purchasing behavior to get us to buy more than we need. Supermarkets frequently take our assumptions and use these very same assumptions against us. 
Cases in point:
We assume you save more when you buy in bulk.  Yet, in some cases, supermarkets purposefully [...]

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A New Supermarket Distraction Aimed to Get You to Spend More Money

December 15, 2008

The other night I was in my local grocery store looking to buy some milk and other essentials. As I flew down the cereal aisle to get to the diary section, I stopped in my tracks noticing this strange looking price on a box of Kelloggs cereal.
I don’t know why I stopped to look but [...]

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What Your Supermarket Doesn’t Want You to Know About Those Cheap $1 Video Rentals

December 3, 2008

If you haven’t used a Redbox video kiosk at your local supermarket recently then you’re missing out on one of the best entertainment deals around. These red kiosks allow you to rent new release videos for only $1, yes really $1.
The kiosks are simple to use. Just swipe your credit card and select a movie [...]

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Money Trap – Not All Supermarket Sales Are Created Equal

November 1, 2008

We all love the thrill of getting a great deal. A sense of pride overwhelms us when we get 50% off a purchase. Yet, grocery stores have learned how to play this love for the deal against us.
They have conditioned us to expect a great bargain whenever we pick up an item that has [...]

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Anatomy of a Sales Trap – Example 2

October 29, 2008

Anatomy of a Sales Trap – Example 2
In our previous Anatomy of a Sales Trap we discussed several methods stores use to increase impulse purchases. Today we analyze another supermarket sales trap – the stand-alone display. Lets take a quick look at how such a stand-alone display works.
The product – Quaker Oats Chewy Protein Bars.

[...]

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