8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on May 3, 2011 15:10:48 GMT -5
I recently read a very insightful article about menu layouts. It detailed tricks of the trade that many are aware of, but perhaps not deep enough to understand why they work. Taking dollar signs off prices and making them round numbers (Ex. Calamari --- 9. instead of: Calamari......$8.99) makes them more friendly and makes people forget that they are spending money. How pairing ordinary items with popular or novel items (adding a cremini demi glace or applewood smoked bacon to plain old chicken) can make them more exciting. My favorite was about putting items in a strategic order... listing a really expensive appetizer (the foie gras rangoon for $19) amidst the usual $7.99 plate of wings or nachos makes the cheaper ones seem more reasonable. Or listing the most profitable item with a picture to give it more prominence.
Then I remembered the article about strategic placement of outlet malls, and items in costco. Like putting the ultra-luxe items (HDTVs, jewelry) right at the front, so people see those and know they can't buy them, but become determined to walk out of the store with something.
From there, I remembered the grocery store strategies... items at eye level, endcaps that aren't really sales, odd pricing...
We are marketed to on levels that we are unaware of. Stores and ads are designed to trigger feelings we don't even know we are having until after we've walked out with the item.
I'm much more interested in discussing how much work goes into making sure we spend, and how we get duped without knowing it, than hearing things like "I never get fooled because I do two weeks of price comparison before I buy a pack of gum".
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on May 3, 2011 15:14:00 GMT -5
The's a reason stores have onsite bakeries. The smell of baking bread can make you feel hungry even if you've just eaten.
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Angel!
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Post by Angel! on May 3, 2011 15:15:58 GMT -5
I read a whole book on store layouts & how it is designed specifically to increase spending. I can't recall the title, but it was fascinating. They have people that stalk shoppers & note everything they look at, every item they pick up, how long they look at something, etc to learn how about shopping behavior.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on May 3, 2011 15:18:50 GMT -5
Pay attention to certain products that are sold in different parts of the store. The same cheese at the deli can be twice as much as the same cheese unsliced in the dairy section. I've almost fallen for the trick on several occassions.
They'll have a big shelf of tortillas at the end of the Mexican aisle, but when I go to the dairy section where they keep the refridgerated biscuts and stuff there are also tortillas, a lot of times there are tortillas hiding in the bin that are cheaper than the ones in the Mexican aisle
But who thinks to look for tortillas in the dairy aisle? It makes sense that you find tortillas in the Mexican aisle.
Also they will pair an item on sale with an item not on sale hoping you don't pay attention. For instance tortilla chips might be on sale, but that jar of salsa that is nicely placed beside it isn't.
They are hoping to form the connection in your mind and you'll put the salsa in your cart along with the chips.
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on May 3, 2011 15:34:28 GMT -5
...:::"They have people that stalk shoppers & note everything they look at, every item they pick up, how long they look at something, etc to learn how about shopping behavior.":::...
Damn! I've heard similar stories about the cameras. They use facial recognition software to track you from aisle to aisle and watch behavior to learn from that.
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Angel!
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Post by Angel! on May 3, 2011 15:43:16 GMT -5
If you think about it, they are doing the same thing with online shopping now. Amazon has all kinds of things to encourage purchases - go to an item page & you will find a list of items frequently bought together & items that people who purchased this item also bought. If you are logged in, their main page has "More Items to Consider", "Related to Items You've Viewed", "Inspired by Your Browsing History", "Additional Items to Explore", "Customers with Similar Searches Purchased", & several others. They inundate you with items picked out especially for you based on your shopping behavior.
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Post by soon2bmomof3 on May 3, 2011 15:46:02 GMT -5
"If you think about it, they are doing the same thing with online shopping now. Amazon has all kinds of things to encourage purchases - go to an item page & you will find a list of items frequently bought together & items that people who purchased this item also bought. If you are logged in, there main page has "More Items to Consider", "Related to Items You've Viewed", Inspired by Your Browsing History", "Additional Items to Explore", "Customers with Similar Searches Purchased", & several others. They inundate you with items picked out especially for you based on your shopping behavior. " I am SO tired of Amazon suggesting GMAT review books. DH took it 4 years ago and ever since then, they regularly email suggestions on different review/practice books.
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Angel!
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Post by Angel! on May 3, 2011 15:46:46 GMT -5
I also have learned that stores within amazon & undoubtedly amazon themselves use algorithms to constantly adjust their pricing, which I found interesting. It makes sense, but I had never considered the possibility. Interesting article on how a book on amazon came to be listed at $23 Million: www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=358
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resolution
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Post by resolution on May 3, 2011 15:47:08 GMT -5
They do that same association thing with their computer in the store. They have my handy shopper card in their computer to keep track of everything that I buy and spit out coupons for products they think I might buy based on my other purchases. They also mail ads to my house which they say are based on my purchases, but they don't seem as accurate as the ones I get at checkout.
I usually shop with DH and he keeps me pretty honest, but last week we were in a hurry and split up to different sections of the store and I noticed that both of us ended up sneaking extra snacks into the cart that weren't on the grocery list. He snuck in some brownies and I snuck in some cheezits.
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sapphire12
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Post by sapphire12 on May 3, 2011 15:47:52 GMT -5
CNBC had a "special" about the secrets of the grocery store industry. It discussed all sorts of tricks they use: music, lighting, loss leaders, water spritzing the fruit and veggies and all sorts of other tricks that I can't remember.
Luckily, I find grocery stores cold, so I get in and get out, but for those who linger, the stores are happy to accommodate you.
Stores spend much money marketing to the customers.
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Angel!
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Post by Angel! on May 3, 2011 15:48:52 GMT -5
I am SO tired of Amazon suggesting GMAT review books. DH took it 4 years ago and ever since then, they regularly email suggestions on different review/practice books. I get the same thing with PE exam books. I've also started picking up a lot of their free e-books, so they like to send me suggestions regarding non-free e-books I may be interested in.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on May 3, 2011 15:51:20 GMT -5
Sears sent me an email saying "Thank you for your purchase". DH purchased pajama pants that weekend at the actual store and the next week they sent me an email with suggestions of what we might want to buy online. It was kinda creepy.
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whoisjohngalt
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Post by whoisjohngalt on May 3, 2011 15:52:58 GMT -5
Angel,
if you ever remember the name of that book, would you mind posting it?
thanks
Lena
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Angel!
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Post by Angel! on May 3, 2011 15:54:14 GMT -5
Angel, if you ever remember the name of that book, would you mind posting it? thanks Lena I will try to find it. Funny enough, I originally read the book because someone had mentioned it on the old boards.
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Post by soon2bmomof3 on May 3, 2011 15:58:28 GMT -5
But Drama, You NEED the matching pj top and the fuzzy slippers to go with it!
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Angel!
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Post by Angel! on May 3, 2011 16:01:03 GMT -5
That was easier than I thought - it was "Why We Buy - The Science of Shopping" by Paco Underhill. Turns out they released an updated version that includes the internet.
If you go to amazon's "look inside" at the first few pages, it talks about the stalking of shoppers that I mentioned.
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whoisjohngalt
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Post by whoisjohngalt on May 3, 2011 16:02:57 GMT -5
Thank you.
It would be a very interesting read. I wonder how many of those tricks worked on me
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midjd
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Post by midjd on May 3, 2011 16:16:41 GMT -5
Those who think we're immune from these tricks are in the most danger of being sucked in I am also going to check out that book, thanks AngelD. Juliet Schor has a good one called "Born to Buy" about marketing tactics directed at children. Some of them are pretty insidious (especially the marketing of junk food).
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sheilaincali
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Post by sheilaincali on May 3, 2011 16:24:57 GMT -5
I went to a store to purchase a vase or something like that- they claimed they "needed my phone number". I was in a hurry and forgot to give my fake number and accidentally gave them my actual phone number. Within a day I started getting text messages from them. Pain in the butt. Now stores are forever asking for your email address, phone number, zip code, etc. I am a pain so I always give them something fake. My phone is always xxx-555-1234. My email is something along those same lines.
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❤ mollymouser ❤
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Post by ❤ mollymouser ❤ on May 3, 2011 16:54:46 GMT -5
OK, I just ordered a used copy of that book (the updated 2008 version) from Amazon. Ooooh .... one more thing for Amazon to track me over. Anyway, I had other items holding in my shopping cart, so I qualified for free super saver shipping, yahoo!
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on May 3, 2011 17:03:50 GMT -5
The local grocery that sells "rotisseri chicken" seems to go thru alot of trouble to make sure you smell it before you even hit the doors. Mind you I live in the land of mom and pop pizza places, Italian Beef stands, and Hotdog stands and I would swear that you cannot smell the exhaust from those places. Not a one. I'm sure the olefactory aura of roasting chicken was carefully thought out... so you'd walk into the store thinking about it - and low and behold to the left of the entrance you can get a whole take out meal.
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Post by illinicheme on May 3, 2011 17:08:10 GMT -5
I'll admit that I frequently think about getting a rotisserie chicken from Costco, but those are way in the back past all the TVs and diamonds and whatnot. ;D
So far I've been doing well resisting the grocery store's chicken, since I know I can get a bigger one for cheaper from Costco. I'm not as good as resisting the deli soups and sides (my local place has a particularly delicious mac and cheese).
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on May 3, 2011 17:09:30 GMT -5
Yeah, I HATE Amazon's 'profiling'. 3 Christmases ago I ordered some Pop Country Music CDs as a gift to a friend and I still get email updates about Country Music artists I might be interested in. Over the last 13 years I ordered exactly 3 Pop Country Music CDs. I don't like Pop Country Music. Amazon keeps pushing this stuff at me, despite the fact that over the last three years (and the 10 before that) I have purchased zillions of alternative, world, indie, hip hop, opera, folk, alternative country, trance, dance, jazz, fusion, and classical music CDs. They just can't seem to let go of that one time purchase of Pop Country Music. They NEVER update me on any of the other artists I've purchased in the past and most likely would impulse buy if I knew there was something new to buy. They need to update their profiling.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on May 3, 2011 17:14:30 GMT -5
I've noticed my internet ads often reflect the most recent 'store browsing' I've done. I was searching for perfume on-line and sure enough every advertisement that came up was related to perfume- that lasted for several weeks until I went clothes shopping and then every advertisement came up with all the clothing stores I'd visited. I don't find the advertisements very helpful. I don't really need to be bombarded with the same old same old... I wish they'd show me advertisements for places I HAVEN"T been to.
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bring in the new year
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Post by bring in the new year on May 3, 2011 17:33:17 GMT -5
On Amazon, log into your account. At the top of the page there should be a bar - you're looking for improve your recommendations.
If you go through that every now and again, you can click on items you've purchased and say do not use this for recommendations.
It doesn't get rid of all of them but it will cut down stuff.
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Post by ty on May 3, 2011 17:52:42 GMT -5
The's a reason stores have onsite bakeries. The smell of baking bread can make you feel hungry even if you've just eaten. This means WAR!
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dancinmama
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Post by dancinmama on May 3, 2011 18:19:59 GMT -5
This is why, especially at the grocery store, it is important to have a list and stick to it. Exceptions: When you forgot to put something on the list because you suffer from CRS. Items that you might find that are on quick sale (getting toward the last date of sale). I sometimes impulse buy when I go into Costco. They don't offer a senior citizen's buffet for nothing!! I rarely impulse buy when I go into a department store or WalMart or Target. I guess I am lucky because I hate to shop. I pretty much get in and out of the stores ASAP.
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Post by robbase on May 3, 2011 19:36:06 GMT -5
if you are a weak person / easily tempted you will succumb to anything, imagine a store actually wants you to buy things and does whatever legally that they can to get you to buy more, oh the humanity!
you have a choice to say yes or no to buy something or even to walk into a store, until someone puts a gun toyour head and makes you physically enter a store or a website to buy something this is a non-story
but I guess we all need to be saved from ourselves
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Post by robbase on May 3, 2011 19:57:46 GMT -5
smart has nothing to do with it...simply put if you walk in the store intent on what you want to buy and you actually walk out of the store with only what you want you are "strong" / resistant to temptation....no one said anything about smart
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on May 3, 2011 20:22:16 GMT -5
...:::"I am SO tired of Amazon suggesting GMAT review books. DH took it 4 years ago and ever since then, they regularly email suggestions on different review/practice books.":::...
Heh, this is why I made DF get her OWN Amazon account. I was tired of having harlequin novels suggested just for me.
...:::"Those who think we're immune from these tricks are in the most danger of being sucked in":::...
I've always believed this as well. People are most vulnerable when they think themselves invincible.
...:::"you have a choice to say yes or no to buy something or even to walk into a store":::...
The point is that a lot of research has been put into making sure you "choose" to buy. They are making sure that saying no is as difficult, unpleasant, depressing, or inconvenient as possible.
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