Financial Aid Podcast Weekly Internet Radio Show - Latest Comments in Retail tricks to get you to spend more

Re: Retail tricks to get you to spend more

jen — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:01:30 -0000

I HATE that "6 for $1.29" thing. I swear they never used to pull that. I work at Old Navy and when we're selling something at 2 for $12 the items are not $6 each, they are regular price. I get that question all the time. NO, it wouldn't be on sale if that were the case. And every time people ask me that its hard not to feel like they're pretty stupid, but its all the supermarkets fault.

Re: Retail tricks to get you to spend more

Emily — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:59:11 -0000

They say that you tend to turn to the right when you enter a store, and i think that's true-- i almost always start at the right side of the store and end up at the left. At the grocery store i visit most frequently they put the gourmet sections at the right... fresh cheeses, deli meats, bakery bread, etc. At the left are the more common, and cheaper, packaged cheeses, Wonderbread, etc. I often pick up a more expensive cheese from the gourmet section before i get to the cheaper dairy section at the other end of the store. By the time i see the cheaper cheese i feel like it's too late to go and put the other one back.

Re: Retail tricks to get you to spend more

Matt — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:51:14 -0000

Rick Wolff: Unfortunately this is not neccesarilly the case. I live in Australia and I often see the larger supermarkets having multiple item specials where you are required to purchase the number of items. An example I saw 2 days ago was 2 packets of biscuits for $4.00 or $2.89 if purchased individually. The 2 item price is automatically added as a discount of $1.78 at the checkout.

One common technique is to place items on "special" at the end of aisles, far away from similar products. This inhibits your ability to do a price/value comparison and encourages you to grab that item and move on.

Re: Retail tricks to get you to spend more

Daniel Johnson, Jr. — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:52:01 -0000

I probably don't pay as much attention to the music and announcements that come over the speakers while I'm at the supermarket, but I know that there are several marketing messages in them.

Re: Retail tricks to get you to spend more

Daniel Johnson, Jr. — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:41:16 -0000

The local gas station encourages people to buy multiple items to get savings by showing that buying one item still costs the regular price. For example, buy 3 candy bars for $2, or $0.79 each.

Re: Retail tricks to get you to spend more

Rick Wolff — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:19:07 -0000

It goes without saying (or maybe not!) that anything packaged in individual units with a group price, such as "6 for $1.29", is for sale individually, for fewer than six.

Re: Retail tricks to get you to spend more

PaulRjMuller — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:54:45 -0000

Another trick is vertical placement.
The average height of an adult is 5'6" averaging out male and females. Products that appeal, or are supposed to appeal to adults, ie health food, even targeted magazines in the mag rack are placed higher. While products aimed at children are placed lower, and usually the lower the product the younger the age the store is aiming for.

Date sensitive products are always pulled down and the newer stocked behind it to sell off the older merch first.

Re: Retail tricks to get you to spend more

Geoff Manning — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:43:53 -0000

Excellent, here are a few additional supporting links I found interesting:

http://www.realsimple.com/r...

http://www.pickbrains.com/a...

Re: Retail tricks to get you to spend more

stacyvanwickler — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:27:48 -0000

this reminds me of one of my favorite communications classes in college. Also:

Walt Disney was not an "imagineer". He was a business merchant first that figured out how to keep people shopping in his mall. The ensuing legend was just gravy.

No clocks or windows in a mall, ever. And ever notice how Mrs. Fields or whatever cookie merchant they have is always near the escalators? So that the smell wafts throughout the mall. Because yes, the smell of cookies even improves sales beyond cookies. Good smells stimulate good feelings in our head. And we buy more when we feel good.

As for McDonald's: extra salt in the food means more beverages necessary; ask for a cup of water and they'll give you the smallest cup they have. The seats are hard and uncomfortable because they want you in and out.

Just a few I remember. It was a great class. Google Robert Thompson, Syracuse Univ.

stacy