How Grocery Stores Manipulate You Into Spending More Money [FREE PRINTABLE]

Grocery stores have little discrete ways of manipulating you to spend more money but today I’m going to share them with you. Once you know them you are able to be aware and not fall into their traps to spend unnecessary money!

Sale Items In The Front Of The Store

When you first walk into the grocery store, you are greeted with huge sale items.

This causes two things to happen and the manipulation to get you to spend more money starts.

First, it starts your shopping experience off with an impulse purchase that you weren’t planning on spending.

Second, it makes you think that you are getting a big win and already saving money.

This will keep you in the mindset that you are saving money and can potentially splurge (on more impulse purchases) down the road.

How to save money on groceries!

🙋🏼‍♀️ Have you found yourself throwing away vegetable after vegetable, month after month?

🙋🏼‍♀️ Do you think about your food habits and get discouraged?

🙋🏼‍♀️ Are you tired of never having a plan and watching your food budget balloon out of control?

🙋🏼‍♀️ Does the thought of grocery shopping stress you out?

🙋🏼‍♀️ Have you tried meal planning before and failed?

I know those frustrations well. I have felt the pure, unadulterated annoyance that food can bring. It’s never fun knowing that you went over budget and had to throw out all the produce you thought for sure you were going to eat… and now you’ve wasted money and didn’t eat healthy.

That’s why I created this course. How To Save Money on Groceries has been 2 years in the making. 2 years of crafting a step-by-step guide on how to…save money on groceries.

This course will help you maintain a healthy lifestyle, stop food waste and give you tips and tricks to harness your best grocery life. You’ll save money, learn how to spend wisely, and most importantly, you’ll learn how to lower your food cost so you can spend on the things that bring you joy!

Produce In The Front Of The Store

Very similar to the sale item in the front of the store, by putting the produce in the front of the store, manipulates you into thinking you are starting off your shopping with a big win.

If you load up your grocery cart with fresh fruits and vegetables in the beginning then you are more likely to justify the junk food down the road.

Charming Prices

Marketers are famous for using “Charming Prices” to get us to spend more money.

According to Entrepreneur.com, Charming Prices are “With charm pricing, the left digit is reduced from a round number by one cent. We come across this technique every time we make purchases but don’t pay attention. For example, your brain processes $3.00 and $2.99 as different values: To your brain $2.99 is $2.00, which is cheaper than $3.00.”

Our brains are trained to read from left to right, so the first number is what registers in your brain.

Popular Items In The Middle Of The Store

Just like dairy in the back of the store, grocery stores will place their most popular items like bread and soda in the middle of the store, this causes you to walk by more items and hopefully impulse buy.

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BIG Shopping Carts

Have you noticed grocery store carts getting bigger?

According to TheTasteOfHome “The average shopping cart has almost tripled in size since 1975.”

Increasing the size of the grocery cart, it tricks you into thinking you have a lot more room and you need to fill it to feed your family.

Retailers like Costco are famous for their GIANT grocery carts.

Dairy In The Back Of The Store

Items like dairy most families buy each week, grocery store retailers know this and will keep their dairy in the back of the store so that you need to pass all the other items to get to it and therefore hopefully have impulse purchases.

Bigger Isn’t Always Cheaper

When seeing bulk items like the BIG jar of peanut butter we think that it’s going to be a better deal but always check the cost per ounce.

Most stores now have the cost per ounce on the price tag so you can compare right there.

FREEBIE Cost Comparison Printable!

Do you know off the top of your head who has the best prices for milk, diapers, eggs, and all of your favorite items?

I know I don’t!

Download this Free Cost Comparison Printable to keep track!

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