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 of us those peak hours of mental performance occur bright and early in the morning. For others peak mental ability occurs during the mid-morning or early in the afternoon.
Each and every one of us enjoys peak mental performance at some point during the day.
Yet as the day progresses our mental sharpness begins to wane and by the end of the day many of us are not only physically exhausted but mentally exhausted as well.
Most people shop for groceries in the evening well after their peak mental prime for the day.
Much like the television viewer who is more susceptible to infomercials late at night, as shoppers, we’re much more susceptible to supermarket persuasion in the evening when most grocery shopping is done.
Grocery stores take full advantage of this fact. It is the very reason supermarket prices often resemble 5th grade math tests – 3 for $7, buy 3 get 2 free, 75 cents off when you buy 3, 4 for $9.
Your grocery store intentionally makes it difficult for you to determine the price of an individual item, thus making it more difficult to determine if you are getting a deal or not.
The later in the day you shop, the less likely you’ll feel mentally up to dividing 3 into 7 to figure out the individual cost of an item. At this point its just easier to pick up 3 and pay the $7.
In essence, supermarkets are counting on the fact that once you’re past your mental peak for the day you’ll be less inclined to want to perform math feats during your evening grocery trip.
So what’s the best way to fight back? Its easy. Just bring a small cheap calculator with you when you shop. Simply slip it into your purse and never be a sucker for supermarket pricing tricks again.
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“Buy one, get two. FREE” How would you parse that? My local market says it means “three for one.” Like a dummy, I bought TWO and paid full price for two.
Frankly, I don’t think I should have to parse a claim just so I can decipher its true meaning. I was afraid that If I’d bought three, I’d have to pay for two.
What’s the remedy? Is there a way to get after these sneaks?
Jim,
I understand completely what you’re saying. I often think grocery stores make it purposefully confusing just to get us to buy more. I remember looking at a price for nearly 5 minutes trying to figure out how many items in needed to buy in order to get the sales savings.
The only remedy I can think of is to ask the cashier before you check out. If the offer isn’t what you expect just leave the items there and make the store put the items back on the shelf – it would be the least they could do for making their offers so confusing.
I find the wording of those really confusing. The Buy one get one free is pretty straightforward. As is buy two get the third free. But buy two get one free is just…ambiguous
I hear you eemusings. Its like the supermarkets purposefully try to make things difficult to understand.
I love your website by the way (http://eemusings.wordpress.com). Its interesting to see that you guys in Auckland have many of the same financial frustrations as we do here in the US like dealing with car buying challenges and trying to divide the bill among several people at a restaurant =)