In light of the quickly approaching Black Friday I thought it would be interesting to analyze all of the subtle manipulating forces acting against consumers as they browse their favorite stores.
Wegmans, a grocery store that originated in Rochester, is the most popular grocery store in my town. At first not everyone was too thrilled about a new grocery store competing with our already existing Quality, but the company was smart and built its new location right next to our local elementary, middle and high schools. With its new prime location, Wegmans quickly became the go-to shopping spot for moms who were looking to quickly grab their groceries after dropping their kids off at school. Had the store been built away from the school, its popularity would have been slow coming and competition with Quality (which was located just on the outskirts of town) would’ve remained very competitive. Later, Wegmans gained popularity with the students themselves when it built a sub shop within its stores and attracted high school athletes who needed a meal in between school and games, but didn’t have time to drive to another restaurant or grocery store. Once inside the store the athletes would also feel the need to grab small snacks to bring with them on longer bus rides (since they were already within the store, they could quickly grab the snacks).
After establishing its prime location Wegmans became even subtler with its manipulation. Wegmans sells, and has always sold, the cheapest milk within twenty-five minutes of its location, and heavily advertises this fact. As a result, many shoppers will go into Wegmans for this great deal. The milk, however, is located in the very back corner of the store and there is no straight shot to get there. Instead, the store is designed as a maze (similar to Ikea) so shoppers have to wind down different aisles (with more expensive items) to reach the milk. By the time they reach the milk and get back to the check out lines, they have undoubtedly found more items that they need. Although these items may not be great deals, it is easier to get them with the milk than to go to Quality as well.
Shoppers in Wegmans may notice that not only are the aisles designed like mazes, but also aisles with more expensive items in them have tiny ridges in the flooring that make more noise as the cart passes over them and actually slow the cart down. This manipulation forces the shopper to spend more time in these aisles where the items are usually more expensive, and unnecessary. This is reported to slow the shopper down and cause a 6% increase in buys of items from these aisles.
Manipulation techniques such as these are not practiced only by Wegmans, although it was my prime example, but by other stores as well. Ikea is famous for its mazes, which shoppers become lost in and are then forced to spend more time wandering through the aisles looking for an exit. Malls employ this same technique. Stores that sell warm clothing reduce the air temperature inside, making the shopper cold and influencing them to buy warmer clothes. Manipulation of consumers is everywhere. Although it may begin with advertisements and brand names, it continues in store design.
Or when they shine a green tinted light on the produce and a red one over the meats. I've seen it before in some grocery stores--- really appalling.
ReplyDeleteTo add to your point on how convenience started the string of manipulations, here's an extreme case in Korea where a supermarket took convenience to the next level. In my opinion, too much of anything is not guaranteed to be a good thing...that said, including convenience. The accessibility available to us actually becomes limiting because we become habituated to having one brand, one branch, etc as it becomes omnipresent in our lives. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJVoYsBym88