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Supermarket Savvy: Tips for Shopping Smarter

IMAGE More than just purveyors of milk and eggs, supermarkets have learned how to entice consumers with smell, targeted shelf placement, and psychological subterfuge.
For instance, the layout of your local supermarket is not as arbitrary as it seems. It is designed to make you spend as much as possible on what the store wants you to buy—which is often more than what you came in for. Meat, poultry, and seafood are usually displayed along the entire back length of the store so that you will see them every time you emerge from an aisle—an appropriate placement for the most profitable department in the store!
Ever wonder why the dairy department is so far away from the main entrance? Almost everybody buys milk and eggs, and the stores recognize that. To reach the dairy case, you have to walk through the entire market, tossing a few extra items into your cart along the way. Half of a store's profits come from these "perimeter" items, which include milk, cheese , meat, deli products, and produce; the more time you spend shopping along the sides and back of the supermarket, the more money the store makes. It is no coincidence that you have to walk through the produce department just as you enter the market. Produce and flowers are the second most profitable department in the supermarket.

Luring You into the Supermarket

Here are some even subtler techniques supermarkets use to entice you to spend:

    Placement and Profits

    Placement of packages on supermarket shelves is very carefully planned. Supermarket executives use computer-generated planograms to help them place products on shelves in a way that creates the greatest possible profit.

      Shop Wisely

      1. Avoid crowds. They break your concentration and make you more likely to impulse shop. Weekends and the 15th and 30th of the month are the busiest shopping days. Shopping in the early morning or late at night helps you avoid long lines, which makes you less likely to impulse shop while you wait to check out.
      2. Shop alone. Do not shop when depressed or hungry. It is hard to concentrate on comparison-shopping when everything in the store looks delicious.
      3. Watch out for downsizing. Manufacturers get more money for their products without raising prices by putting less product in the same-sized container. Especially true of cereals and coffee.
      4. Compare unit prices. Although larger-sized products are usually the better buy, that may not hold true for peanut butter, tomato products, cottage cheese, and tuna fish.
      5. Differentiate between brand names, house brands, and generics:
        As you decide which type of product to buy, determine how you plan to use it. Your family may balk at generic juices, but probably will not notice the difference between name-brand and house-brand dairy products, condiments, or canned vegetables.

        RESOURCES

        American Dietetic Association http://www.eatright.org

        Supermarket Guru http://www.supermarketguru.com

        CANADIAN RESOURCES

        Canadian Council on Food and Nutrition http://www.ccfn.ca

        Dietitians of Canada http://www.dietitians.ca/

        References

        Gladwell M. The science of shopping. Available at: http://www.gladwell.com/1996%5F11%5F04%5Fa%5Fshopping.htm.

        Staten V. Can You Trust a Tomato in January? The Hidden Life of Groceries and Other Secrets of the Supermarket Revealed at Last. Simon and Schuster; 1992.

        Underhill P. Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping. Simon and Schuster; 1999.

        This content is reviewed regularly and is updated when new and relevant evidence is made available. This information is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with questions regarding a medical condition.

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