Sale gimmicks at grocery stores make Rye students buy more than they need.

Jason Teakle

You might think that whatever is on display at the ends of aisles in the Metro store is a sale item.

 At least, that’s what I always thought.

 Following this logic, I picked up a box of almond bars on an end display: $3.49. I go to the granola bar section to compare the prices and find that this is the brand fit for kings — the most expensive one in stock.

 “The end of the aisles used to be where the sales were but it’s not necessarily so anymore,” says registered dietitian Claire Cronier.

 Her knowledge of how stores tempt you to buy certain products is the kind of thing cash-strapped students could use to save money.

 “If money is an issue, then consumers should make sure that that particular brand is what they’re looking for at the price they’re looking for because they’re not always the cheapest (at the end of the aisles).” She says these products have less competition than items in aisles.

 “We believe that about 60 per cent of purchase decisions are made in the store,” says Gillian Kerr, senior director of marketing at Metro, referring to items that were not on consumers’ grocery lists.

 Supermarkets have reasons for putting items in particular places — and use strategies to entice customers to buy. One such strategy is placing products that are more expensive at eye level, says Cronier. “Anything that is between three and five feet (eye level) is usually the higher margin where the profit is a little higher. And it’s usually those products that the consumers will buy most often.”

 Elizabeth Evans, director of retail management at Ryerson, says that consumers being more likely to buy products at eye level is one of the observations that Paco Underhill made about consumers’ shopping habits in a popular business book Why we Buy: the Science of Shopping.

 She agrees that supermarkets have used this technique.

 “Supermarkets understand that products that are positioned at eye level are going to probably have a higher rate of sale. Companies are going to think more strategically about what products they are going to position at eye level to benefit from that.”

 As well, grocery retailers — and pretty much all retailers — spend time analyzing and understanding the  whole issue of adjacencies within stores, says Evans.

 “So if people are buying whatever product, what do you put near that product to see if there’s some additional sales that might be had from that?” Evans also says that grocery retailers will position their private labels next to national brands.

 “They do this to get consumers to look at the two side by side and consider trying the private label as opposed to buying the national brand.”

 Cronier says to be aware of your habits as you’re waiting in line at the cash.

 “That is, ‘keep your hands in your pockets and your eyes on the people in front of you,’ because as we’re waiting, it’s amazing how we’ll all be attracted to that magazine we really didn’t want to read, or a candy bar sitting there.”

 Robert Wilson, a marketing professor, says that all supermarkets, unless they were built long ago, have the same layout.

 That being said, Wilson says if you were to blindfold him, walk him into any supermarket and take the blindfold off, he’d be able to tell you where the milk is.

 “It’s in the extreme corner,” he says. “Because milk is an item that’s bought regularly and because it’s in the far corner, it means you have to walk through the store and are more likely to see things that you may want to purchase.

 “These are all fairly standard merchandising techniques,” he says. “Personally, I don’t find anything deceptive about them . . . What (supermarket designers) do is actually quite out in the open and quite visible.”

 Evans says that it’s good for students to be aware of these strategies.

 “Anytime that the consumer can be as knowledgeable as possible, it’s always a good thing and I certainly think that that is the time we live in. Knowledge and information are so much more accessible and you can get price comparisons and product ratings on the Internet.”

 Because of this, she says that there is very little reason why a student — or anyone else — wouldn’t be able to get all the information they need to make good buying decisions.

 Joanna Regula, a fourth-year business management student, says that she is aware of these techniques from general business strategy material that she’s encountered in her business courses.

 “Knowing that supermarkets use such strategies doesn’t really bother me as I understand it is a business that has the main purpose of gaining profitability and will use various strategies to ensure that the business is successful,” she says.

 Regula says she goes to the supermarket aware of these strategies, and tries to place her focus on the products she originally went into the store to buy.

 “This is especially necessary when someone is on a budget as buying products you may not necessarily need can quickly add up. Before going to the supermarket, I make sure that I know all the necessary things I need to buy and focus strictly on that.”

 Evans says that planning ahead is an important part of staying on track when grocery shopping.

 She says to go with a shopping list, pre-plan what it is that you need to buy and focus on that when you’re in the store.

 Although she says you can use your visit to respond to special promotions, pre-planning is important as it gives you some direction as you go through the store.

 In order to save money, Cronier recommends choosing the store brand because they’re usually a little less expensive than a national brand.

 “And then you might be saving 10 to 20 per cent by using a store brand,” she says.

 As for my grocery shopping venture — armed with all of this knowledge — I stand waiting in line at the checkout.

 I cave, and buy a magazine.