Page 18 - TalkTalk

Supermarket

Traps Even the way floors are designed can make you spend

more. In many supermarkets, the tiles in aisles with
expensive items are smaller so that it sounds as if
your trolley is moving faster, which makes you slow
down and spend more time in that area. Many shops
use carpets to slow your speed. Other shops remove
How consumers windows, so that you have less connection with the

outside world and are more likely to spend more time
end up buying more shopping. If you can’t see that it is getting dark

outside, you are more likely to take your time inside
the shop.
Retailers would quickly go out of business if we
walked straight in, bought what we needed, then
walked straight out again. This is why in food shops
Have you ever wandered into a shop with a list of a major items such as bread and milk are placed at the
few things, only to come out with twice as much back. Similarly, in clothes shops, fitting rooms and
stuff? There is a reason for this. Retailers have been cash desks are usually far from the entrance.
using different techniques to increase their sales for Shopping malls usually have complicated floor plans
years. And they work! so that it's easy to get in, but harder to find your way
out. Also, separating escalators between floors
Smell is a common trick used to get shoppers means you have to walk around the mall to go up to
spending. Most supermarkets now welcome another level. The more time you spend inside, the
customers with the smell of fresh bread or roast more money you are likely to spend. Retailers are
chicken to make you hungry. Retailers are playing playing with your mind. Don't let them get away with
with your mind, in which case you are much more It!
likely to buy food. Imagine if you're starving! Many
restaurants and fast food outlets use the same trick
and send kitchen smells onto the street to attract
more customers.

The way that products are displayed also plays a
very important role. More popular items are usually
in the middle of aisles so that you have to walk
further, past more products to reach them. Products
that shops want to promote are placed at eye-level
or at the end of aisles to get maximum attention.
Many companies pay shops to place their products
there. Have you ever noticed that certain shelves in
shops look untidy, as if customers have been moving
everything around? This is not by accident. You may
think that people would be put off by this but
retailers often make areas look untidy, so that
customers believe they are looking at reduced price
products or a very popular promotion.