Retail tricks to get you to spend more

One of the arcane sciences of marketing is point of sale, the science of getting someone to buy as much stuff as possible in a store visit. This really matters to you as a consumer because once you know how the tricks work, just like any magic trick, they don’t fool you, and you’ll save money. This is especially important during the first few weeks of college when you make decisions that are typically rushed and during the holidays when the pressure is on to buy something, anything.

From the moment you walk into a store, you’re being encouraged to buy. Stores place carts and baskets immediately at the front of the store, sometimes even in the flow of foot traffic, to encourage you to take one. Why? You’re less likely to run into the store and buy just one item with a cart or basket in hand, the same way you’re more likely to take additional food in a cafeteria that has trays. Forego the basket or cart unless you really need it.

You’ll notice in stores that almost every store, gas station, and supermarket uses irrational pricing. What’s irrational pricing? It’s pricing something at $4.99 instead of $5. Does this matter? Yes - in cognitive psychology and behavioral economics, there’s more mental processing time to round up 4.99 than to simply see 5. As we rush through life and stores, our brains irrationally believe that 4.99 is a significantly better deal than 5, even though it’s just a penny’s difference. The net effect? An item that might not get you to buy at 5 might get you to buy at 4.99.

Products on shelves are often sorted by margin - profit to the store. Products that deliver the highest profit to a store are placed at roughly eye level. Products that deliver lower profits get put high up, in less visited aisles, and labeled less conspicuously. For those who have young children, products featuring kid-friendly art and design are at eye level, too - for the kids.

Ever been to a department store and wondered why the escalators up and down are nowhere near each other? You have to walk around half the store - and a bunch of things for sale - to reverse direction, unlike regular concourses where up and down are next to each other. Likewise, restrooms are typically as far away from the front door as possible, again to get you to walk by as many products as possible. Sometimes they’re intentionally poorly marked, partly to discourage casual foot traffic (restrooms are a maintenance cost) but partly to either get you to walk around a lot or talk to a sales person. Supermarkets also place essentials like milk, bread, and eggs at the back of stores for the same reason. Defeat this trick by always shopping with a list!

You’ll pay almost triple at the register for things like gum, candy, soda, and water on a per-unit basis. Check the price of a pack of gum at the register and what the same pack in a unit of 3 sells for in the candy aisle - you massively overpay when you buy on impulse. Take the time to walk to the product’s aisle to save more.

One trick being tried by grocery stores is having sale-less signs on shelves. A consumer behavior study showed that signs on shelves saying things like “Everyday Low Price” and “Save More Every Day” that are substantially similar to true sales generate the same interest from consumers - and same purchasing, without costing the store any more money in reduced profits.

Ever been in the supermarket when it’s busy and wonder why the aisles barely fit two carts wide and there’s ALWAYS a free-standing display in the middle of the aisle? This isn’t an accident or even poor planning. It’s designed to create traffic bottlenecks in aisles, right near the middle of the aisle. The more you have to stop, the more likely you are to pick something up off a shelf nearby while you wait for the traffic jam to clear.

Stores are worse than Boston’s roads in the sense that every time you go in, someone’s rearranging something, and what was in one part of the store last week is in a different part this week. Again, neither an accident or poor planning. By changing the layout of the store frequently, the store requires you to look around more, wander around more - and see more stuff to buy.

Extended warranty? Pass, unless you know for sure that the store will be in business longer than the warranty. As customers of the Sharper Image and Circuit City have found out, the extended warranty stops when the store stops - even if the product is still within its warranty period. Say no to extended warranties from stores. The same is true for gift cards - in a bankruptcy, you don’t have any guarantee that a gift card will be honored.

In a down economy, everyone looks for a bargain, and stores are not shy about advertising their sales. That said, also realize that stores are desperate to make sales. When you find something at a store that seems like a good deal, take a picture of it with a cameraphone or other inconspicuous camera, then check prices online to see whether it’s really a good deal, or just a great sale sign. There are very, very few items that cannot wait a day for you to check the pricing on.

These are just a few of the many tricks used in retail marketing to get you to spend more than you had intended to spend on a quick trip to the store. For a college student on a limited budget, spending thoughtfully is more important than ever. Now that you know these tricks, they won’t work nearly as well, particularly if you turn it into a game of sorts and see which tricks the store is trying to use on you.

Question for you, the reader - what other tricks have you noticed in stores? What other things have gotten you to spend more money than you wanted to? Please leave your thoughts in the comments!

Article updated December 8, 2008.

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