Supermarket Psychology: Are you a Shopaholic?
Oniomania, or more commonly known as “shopaholism”, is defined as “an abnormal impulse for buying things”.
Often time consumers do not realize that they have swiped their credit card to purchase items that were unnecessary, only until the day the bill comes in do they realize their monthly budget had been overspent.
Not only do the discounts and sales the stores put up intrigue customers, there is a science behind that magnets them for purchases. These experts put this science fully into use to juggle with their customers’ mind into purchasing more of their products. This science is called, marketing psychology.
One of the major contributors to attract customers is the general layout of the store. As a customer enters the market, he/she is most likely to encounter the fresh food section. A portion full of fresh fruits and vegetables makes the entire area a more relaxing and clean environment, which would in return create a sense of emotional involvement in the shopping experience. The vivid colors of the fresh food appeals to most consumers and induces them into a “shopping mode”, where they would unconsciously spend more than then would have if the fresh food section was located elsewhere. To enhance the effects of vegetables and fruits, most markets would spray water on these fresh foods consistently, to build an illusion such that the products are only recently delivered from the nearest farms. Imagine if the first sight upon entry to the market is a shelf of canned, pre-prepared, frozen, or boxed food, the desire of shopping in such a market would be greatly reduced, as it would not provide a sense of freshness as vegetables and fruits would.
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The location of products proved to be pivotal in drawing the customers’ shopping desire. Most consumers do not walk up and down the aisles to shop as it would be too time consuming. The major products (i.e. vegetables, fruits, meat, dairy products, etc.) are located around the market since these major products provide the largest profit margin to the market owners (Harrison, 2008). For other products, in order to gain maximum exposure to the customers, they are placed at the ends of the aisles, where people would pay attention to while shopping for the major products. As for the center of the aisles, the varieties of products are decreased as they are less frequently visited by the consumers. However, in order to intrigue customers to the center of the aisles, products at the end of the aisles are more familiar brands, or products on sale, which serves as a directional road sign to the shoppers.
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Now knowing what is tricking us into purchasing large amount of unnecessary goods, hopefully we, as customers, could be able to control ourselves. Next time we see our monthly bills, maybe it would not be as high as it used to be.
Further Reading:
Harrison, P. 2008. Supermarket Psychology. Supermarket psychology | tribalinsight [online]. Available from http://tribalinsight.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/supermarket-psychology/
Mandhachitara, R., Shannon, R. 2008. Casual path modeling of grocery shopping in hypermarkets. Journal of Product & Brand Management. 17 (5): 327-340.
September 27th, 2011 at 12:05 pm
I am a hopeless shopaholic. However, I don’t shop if I know can’t spend a penny. If $5 is alright, I end up spending $10.
I don’t really agree with the statement that the only reason to shopaholism is marketing psychology. A lot people would shop even if they didn’t have shopping assistants convince them to purchase.
Also, there is such phenomena often ignored by psychologists. People who had tough life at some point. By “tough” I mean times when individual’s family was having financial difficulties, or even worse when country is in war. Those conditions leave a person without any belongings, in extreme cases. So after they manage to get out of such situations, and if they get wealthy, they have a syndrome of spending money “to have their fridge full”. Especially, if they have kids.
The one example that I’ve observed myself is people who started their families during Soviet Union collapsing year. Seeing families ruined, they now spend money on their kids more than usual parents do, sometimes buying things children don’t really need.
P.S. Oniomania is such a cool word!
September 28th, 2011 at 2:53 pm
I was surprised to read that the “major products (i.e. vegetables, fruits, meat, dairy products, etc.) are located around the market since these major products provide the largest profit margin to the market owners (Harrison, 2008)”. I would have though perishable items have a lower profit margin since a lot goes to waste. Hm!
October 1st, 2011 at 9:08 am
This idea of marketing psychology is very intriguing. I never knew that markets spray water on fresh foods to build the illusion that the products are recently delivered from the nearest farms – I thought it was just to keep the food from going bad from being out at room temperature all day! It definitely makes sense that the fresh food is put at the front though – it is definitely more appetizing than canned or prepackaged food!
October 2nd, 2011 at 9:45 am
Speaking of impulse buying, that’s exactly why there are racks of candy bars near the cash registers in supermarkets. If you really want to stretch this theory, it might also be why the UBC bookstore decides to make a maze around the clothing section for the line-ups during the start-of-term textbook rush 😉
October 7th, 2011 at 9:23 pm
Very interesting. I read this after hearing about it from your presentation the other day. Come to think of it. Most of the things I get at the grocery store is from the sides and not the isles. Do you think this tactic also works on retail clothing stores?
October 9th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Like Kenneth, I read this after listening to your speech. To me, this is such an intriguing topic. I go grocery shopping every week and not once did I think the were trying to trick me with placing all the important foods on the outside. What I found most interesting in you blog was that people spend more money when they walk in the counter clockwise direction. Next time i go shopping I will make sure to walk in the other direction.