The combination of products, temperature, aroma, background music, and décor of your supermarket is not coincidental. You may be going shopping, but the owners of the supermarket chains have only one goal: to get you to waste as much money as possible – and for them, every means of doing so is fair. But this is how you can protect yourselves from them.
Millions of years of evolution have helped man adapt to his natural environment. But nothing has prepared him to deal appropriately with the forces of the market and the economy.
Those same senses and instincts that helped prehistoric man survive in nature, tens of thousands of years ago, hamper us today, causing us to make the wrong decisions, decisions that are not optimal within our modern lifestyle. Human beings and consumers in particular, find it difficult to make intelligent decisions, and are influenced by the various manipulations of marketers.
Over the years, marketers have become more sophisticated, and have learned to exploit the cognitive failures of consumers. Today, the effectiveness of a marketer is measured not only by his ability to sell good products at a competitive price, but also by his ability to exploit the inbuilt failings in the consumer’s awareness.
Among the places that confuse the senses of consumers, there is none more dangerous than a supermarket. For decades now, leading researchers and marketers have devoted their professional lives to a single goal: to get consumers to waste as much money as possible at the supermarket, and, if possible – without them feeling it.
The arrangement of products in a supermarket is an exact science, whose goal is to extend, as much as possible, the time spent by the consumer in wandering among the shelves. If you have ever gone into a supermarket to buy “just” a loaf of bread and a package of Diapers, yet found yourself on a trek that would be the envy of the most hardy explorer – you should know that this was the supermarket management’s explicit plan. The various aspects of the “shopping experience” are regimented and planned down to the last detail, including the calming background music and the aromas wafting through the air. Nothing is left to chance. And so, here is a brief survival guide to one of the most difficult and challenging living environments on the planet – the supermarket.
A healthy mind in a healthy body
Just as you do before a decisive examination, sports competition or important business meeting, you need to make sure that your body is in top condition before beginning a visit to the supermarket. It has been proven that hungry people buy more. The primeval need to hoard food is awakened by the sense of hunger and thirst, and this influences the extent of our purchases. Supermarket operators know this full well. Modern supermarkets have a ventilation system that is designed to spread the aroma of the bakery department throughout the supermarket. The aroma stimulates and reinforces the sense of hunger, and from there it’s only a short step to filling a shopping cart with unnecessary products.
Don’t surrender, don’t despair
The heart of intelligent consumerism is the principle of comparing prices. Marketers, on the other hand, want to influence the consumer’s “price perception,” and to shape it to their needs. When a particular product is relatively cheap, the marketer will give this fact significant prominence in his advertising. Where the prices of products are relatively high, however, the marketer will try to cloud this fact as much as he can.
Comparing prices sometimes involves complex detective work, and demands unending patience. You should see this as a test of your willpower and determination. Take into account that, as part of his attempt to maximize profits, the marketer will attempt to shift your purchases from cheap products to more expensive ones in the same category. In Israel, milk in a carton, for example, is subject to price control. Enriched milk in a carton, on the other hand, is not, and its price is significantly higher.
Don’t forget to compare prices
Set yourselves a challenge: try to find the price-controlled milk in a refrigerator full of dairy products. Were you able to do so? Congratulations. You’re ready for the next task: find the eggs that are price-controlled, among all the different enriched, free-range, and organic eggs on the shelves. It goes without saying that the regular eggs are cheaper, but much harder to find. The marketer is relying on you to give up your search, and buy a more expensive product, one which is not price-controlled. Be resolute about not giving him that pleasure.
Know where you have come from, and where you are going
The main goal of supermarket architects is to get you to buy more than you have planned. Come with a shopping list and try to stick to it. Just as in programs like “American Idol” (or Israel’s Kochav Nolad), any attempt at improvisation in the supermarket may end up being a disappointment. If the worst happens, and you have to choose a product on the spot (for example, a box of cereal from among the twenty different kinds on the shelf), stop, take a deep breath, and remember a few basic principles:
• The products that the supermarket management wants you to buy are those that are most accessible, and these are usually found right in front of you on the shelf. In general, these are the strongest, most profitable brand names for the supermarket. If you look down to the bottom shelves, or up at the top shelves, you may discover competing products at more sensible prices.
• Private label products are supposed to cost less, and to give better value for money. The money that is saved from not having to advertise brand names, should be reflected in a lower price to the consumer. Sometimes, the same producers who make the brand name products will utilize their excess production capacity to make private label products, and so the quality should be similar.
• Larger packages are not necessarily more economical. In order to work out whether you really have a bargain, you need to compare the price per unit volume or weight. Most cell phones include a calculator function – don’t be embarrassed to use it.
• When you reach the checkout, close your eyes, hum a silent prayer, or check your e-mails on your cell phone. The checkout area is a dangerous honey trap that requires an iron will, or serious distraction, to escape. The waiting time at the checkout is the supermarket’s last opportunity to wrest that last bit of money from your hands through “impulse buying,” motivated by a momentary impulse that can’t be overcome. Will you feel better after having gobbled down that chocolate bar that you set your eyes on?
Children are a blessing – especially when they’re at home
It’s well known that children are insidious agents, especially when filled with advertising messages and having no economic worries. They have a tendency toward unrestrained – and uncontrollable – temper tantrums, especially when their demands are not met. The television screens, before which they spend too much of their time, flood their impressionable minds with brand names, and plant in their young souls the destructive seeds of overconsumption.
It turns out, and this is no joke, that advertisers today deliberately choose advertisements and advertising campaigns based on the extent to which they make children nag their parents to purchase the products being advertised. The more effective an advertisement is at getting children to nag their parents to buy those items, the better and more effective it is in the eyes of the advertisers.
An unsolved riddle is why, in a semi-civilized society such as ours, the law allows advertisers to knowingly cause children to nag and bully their parents, so that they will buy them unneeded items or food products that are harmful to their health. But, until our elected representatives wake up, and make such anti-social activity illegal, do yourselves a favor and leave your children at home. No savings have ever been achieved by taking them to the supermarket.
