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 assumption against us by purposefully pricing a bulk size package more expensively than the smaller size package.
Your typical supermarket is full of these subtle tricks. Yet a few days ago I came across a new “trick” that just took the cake.
I was walking past the frozen food section when I noticed my favorite sinful indulgence on sale – Dove Frozen Ice Cream Miniatures. These heavenly creations contain flavored bite sized pieces of ice cream covered in decadent Dove chocolate.
I’ve forced myself to buy these only when they’re absolutely on sale. So you can imagine my delight as I noticed the numerous red price tags announcing the $3.99 sales price. I picked up my favorite variety – and went on with my shopping.
A funny thing happened though at the cash register. I generally try to make a mental estimate of how much my purchases will add up to. This time the actual grocery tally and my mental tally didn’t match. It didn’t take long to figure out that the problem was with my Dove bar purchase. Indeed it rang up for the regular price of $5.99 instead of the $3.99 sale price.
In a hurry and not wanting to make a fuss I left the Dove bars behind and exited the store. Yet, on a repeat visit to another store in this national supermarket chain the same thing happened.
This time feeling a little perturbed I went back to the frozen food section. Looking a bit closer I noticed that despite all the red sales tags over most of the Dove bar varieties there was actually no sale sales tag below the particular variety that I had picked up. (There was a sales tag right above my item but it is for the product above the sales tag – see picture bottom right)
Suspecting a new supermarket “trick” I took all 3 varieties of Dove bars shown below to the cashier to have her check the prices. As I had thought two of the three varieties rang up for $3.99, the third (my Dove bar variety of choice) rang up for $5.99!
Quizzically I asked the cashier why a different price for essentially the same product. Her blank expression made me realize that she had no idea as she tried to come up with a plausible explanation.
Here is my theory. Certain grocery store chains have realized that if we see several variations of a particular product on sale that we assume all the variations of that particular product are on sale. This is especially true when we see the variety we want surrounded by a sea of red sales stickers.
Assuming the variety we pick up is on sale we simply toss it into our shopping cart. I’m guessing that the supermarket is betting we won’t even notice that we’ve paid full price for an item that we actually thought was on sale, walking out of the store none the wiser.
Yet this wasn’t the first time that this type of “trick” stung me at this particular supermarket chain. Another instance occurred when I was shopping for a brand of microwave popcorn on sale.
It seems that all the variations of the microwave popcorn (kettle corn, light butter, heavy butter, etc) were on sale except for one. With all the red sales stickers it was extremely easy to pick up the one variety of microwave popcorn that was not on sale.
The lesson – you have to be on guard when grocery shopping. Supermarkets are becoming sneakier in their attempts to separate us from our money. Check and double check that the actual item you’re picking up is actually on sale.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi! I agree with you in the lesson which u cited in your blog. That is so true. A lot of psychology is being applied against us consumers to suck the money in our wallet. I love your post. It’s enlightening.
Thanks Raynz,
Unfortunately it seems that businesses everywhere are looking for ways to take advantage of us – from credit cards that raise interest rates to 25% or more for no reason to banks that charge outrageous overdraft fees =)
This is so true. Every where you shop you have to watch them like a hawk at the register. Everyday, every time. I thought it was just me!
You’re right Chris. It seems that we have to watch everything nowadays
it gets really anoying when customers like you come up to the register and question us (the cashiers) about a sale, we dont know the sales its not like we study whats on sale each week. And the thing with the 3.99 tags, they could have missed that one and it didnt make it through the system, or there was an overstock of the ones on sale.
I totally agree with this. It makes me so mad when I get up to the check out and the price is wrong. But I stick to my guns, because a lot of the times the only reason I bought the product was because it was on sale. I will be that person that holds the line up until they do a price check, and most of the time I am right.
Lynda,
Thanks for stopping by.
I don’t blame you for holding up the line. If a product is on sale we shouldn’t let the grocery store off the hook for not properly programming their scanners to reflect the sale price. This happens more often than you would think. The more consumers complain and make a fuss, the more supermarkets will listen and get their act together.
How difficult would it be for a cashier to “familiarize” themselves with what was on sale each week? I would think that would be part of the job. Remember the good ole days when the cashier announced the price of the item as they were ringing it up. Gone are those days….the ones where cashiers could actually count change without a computer doing all the work for them. Now your groceries are scanned while you are busy unloading your cart. Then if there is a mistake, you have to go wait in line at the service counter to get a refund. There is no work ethic anymore…no one cares about their jobs.