How supermarkets lure us into spending more than we plan

Supermarkets are meticulously designed to maximize customer spending. The layout and construction of individual elements are carefully planned. One crucial part of this strategy is the design of the shopping carts.

Most people do their major grocery shopping at least once a week, typically intending to buy a few necessary items and leave quickly. However, this often results in a full cart and a hefty bill. Why does this happen? It’s due to the psychological tricks employed by supermarkets. So, what exactly is going on?

Your encounter with these tricks begins even before you enter the store. At the entrance, a row of large carts greets you. These carts are usually too big for your needs, but no smaller alternatives are available. Worse still, some of these carts have problems with the wheels — they wobble, get stuck, or don’t move smoothly. This is not a coincidence. The wobbly wheel slows you down, giving the store an advantage immediately.

The slower you move, the more products can catch your eye. Promotional offers and discounts are strategically placed at the end of each aisle, enticing you to fill your cart with items you didn’t plan to buy. Additionally, the large cart seems almost empty, prompting you to add more products.

Have you noticed that supermarkets rarely have windows and clocks? This is a deliberate tactic to keep you inside longer; the sight of darkness outside might hasten your shopping. The calm, relaxing music playing in the background is another psychological trick. It makes you move slower and spend more time in the store, enhancing your shopping experience.

Also, the arrangement of products on the shelves should be observed. The most expensive and profitable products are placed at eye level, while cheaper ones are on lower shelves, where we rarely look. However, there is an exception to this rule.

Expensive sweets are placed lower so that children can easily reach them. Clever, right? These tricks lead you to go home with bags full of items you don’t need. Sometimes, we forget the main reason for our visit, prompting another shopping trip and repeating the cycle.