Six ways to save in the weekly shop as supermarkets get us to spend more

John Hearne analyses the retail psychology in your weekly grocery shop

TESCO has once again established itself as top dog in the grocery market, retaking pole position from SuperValu over the last three months. There is, however, very little between them. Tesco has 25.2% of the market and SuperValu has 24.8%. Though running third in the race, Dunnes posted the strongest growth of all three in that three month period – and is now sitting on 21.9% of the market.

Aldi and Lidl meanwhile divide 17% more or less equally between them.

Georgieann Harrington is consumer insight director with research firm Kantar World Panel, who compile this data. She says, “With shoppers paying 0.6% more for their groceries compared to last year, competition is fierce between the retailers as they battle it out to offer best value for money.”

As Harrington suggests, part of the effort to make more money out of us involves trying to offer best value, or at least trying to convince us that they offer best value. But that’s not the whole story. Far from it.

The supermarket itself, which is the crucible for so much of our consumer lives, is a lot more than a mere warehouse, packed with conveniently arrayed groceries and irritating music. Instead, think of yourself as a lab rat, with Tesco and Co as the guys in the white coats, trying to engineer a maze of aisles into something that will extract as much money from you as possible, then make you want to repeat that experience next week.

The first weapon in this psychological war is fruit. Fruit and vegetables.

Has the fact that they always put this stuff at the front of the store ever annoyed you? The first things you put in the trolley are also the most squishable, which means that if you’re filling up, you’re continually rearranging stuff to ensure the bananas don’t get pulped.

Putting the fresh stuff at the front is all about making the place more inviting. It creates the impression of an old-style green grocers, giving us — in theory anyway – a greater emotional involvement in the shopping experience. Some US retailers actually spray a fine water mist over their greens throughout the day, to make them look as if they’ve come straight from the fields.

Research, we are told, has also found that people who buy more fruit and vegetables tend to buy more overall, and what’s more, once we have put some decent food into our trolleys, we’re more likely to cut loose and lob some high-sugar, high salt crap in there too.

Think of the other stuff you see front of store; flowers, fresh pastries, the coffee machine... all with their welcoming colours.

The psychology begins however before you even get to the door. Next time you insert your coin and wrestle a trolley out of the herd, notice how vast that trolley actually is. This wasn’t always the case. Studies have found that simply increasing the volume of the trolley makes us put more in it.

Even where you put the door seems to have an impact. According to Australian research, right hand side entrances favour anti-clockwise movement through the shop. Left-hand side entry favours clockwise movement. For some bizarre reason, shoppers who move in an anti-clockwise pattern have been shown to spend $2 more per trip.

When it comes to the psychology behind putting particular products in particular places, supermarkets have a whole host of tricks up their sleeves. Dairy products are always in the bottom corner. Why? Part of the logic is logistics. Keeping bulky, refrigerated goods as close as possible to loading bays means you don’t have to hike everything through the store to stock the shelves.

The other reason is a little more subtle. Milk and butter are what’s known as destination items. You won’t leave the store without getting them. So, why not put them as far from the door as possible, and line the route with all kinds of other goods which you may then use to fill the yawning void that is your shopping trolley?

Then you have the “impulse areas” or “grab zones”— typically found towards the very end of your shopping experience. This is where you’ll find the high margin goods like luxury truffles, sweets and magazines. Think cheese for lab-rats. These areas are all about inviting us to reward ourselves for a job well done.

Next time you visit, notice how the most expensive stuff is almost always at eye level. This is simply because time and again, studies have proven us a lazy lot, who don’t like bending down or reaching up, so the stuff they most want us to buy will always involve the minimum of activity.

In the same vein, you’ll never see the stuff that’s aimed at kids way up high were a grown-up has to hand it down to them. It will always be there within easy reach, right in front of them.

Shelf placement is such a powerful variable that brands will actually pay placement fees to ensure their stuff goes where it’s more likely to be selected.

Likewise, end-of-aisle spots are highly prized, because, psychologists tell us, the aisles themselves act as funnels, leading us towards destinations, kind of like a how a tree-lined avenue leads towards a stately home. In this way, the stuff placed at the ends of aisles becomes more desirable than the stuff that brings us there.

While the weekly shop remains a staple of the Irish consumer landscape, there are emerging trends which threaten to knock it from its pedestal.

Mark Price, chief executive of UK multiple Waitrose, recently announced that the era of the big weekly shop was over. He told a newspaper: “The notion that you are going to go and push a trolley around for the week is a thing of the past.”

In the UK at least, these once-a-week shopping expeditions have been losing ground to multiple top-up trips to convenience stores, and to internet buying.

That hasn’t been happening to any great extent over here however. According to a Google survey from late last year, only 4% of us have attempted to replace the weekly shop by going online. The supermarkets are however in the middle of a big push to get us onto their websites. Let’s just hope, when it comes to delivering everything, that they don’t squash the bananas.

Shoppers are paying 0.6% more for their groceries versus last year, retail competition is fierce

Six ways to ensure you get what you want in the weekly shop

1. Make a list. Stick to it. You are the bouncer; the trolley is the nightclub. If it’s not on the list, it’s not getting in.

2. Don’t shop with kids, and if this isn’t possible, set the ground rules before you get into the shop. Promise something — a trip to the playground for example— in exchange for not attempting to get crap into the trolley.

3. Don’t shop hungry.

4. Be smart about two-for-one offers; in fact, be smart about all special offers you are presented with. Don’t bulk-buy stuff that’s going to go off, don’t be seduced by bright colours and ads that promise great value if, on examination, they don’t really.

5. Loyalty schemes are all about collecting data— your data, in order to more finely tune the attempt to get hold of your cash. In exchange for that data, you get something; a suite of offers ranging from cash rebates to discount coupons. Make it a habit, when you make your list, of collecting those coupons and bringing them with you.

6. Try own brands. They’re just as good. If the kids object, simply deceive them. Keep the own brand boxes and switch the own brand stuff in there.