I recently read an article that purported to reveal the “secrets supermarkets don’t want you to know”. It listed various nefarious acts grocery retailers commit in order to sell their customers higher profit “junk food”. The article linked to another similar article which claimed grocers were conspiring to make customers fat since fat customers will buy more food at higher profit margins.
Let’s take a look at some of these odious “tricks”:
Why do stores place milk in the back? Milk is called a “loss leader”. The stores generally take a loss on this product, but it is a dietary staple so people will seek it out. Therefore, placing it in the rear of the store will “lead” people passed other grocery items, and hopefully this will entice them to buy other products beside milk. However, this isn’t the only reason. Milk has a high turn-over rate; the cartons typically have a one-week expiration date. This means there will be a truck delivering milk at least once per week, which has to be unloaded and stocked in the cooler cases. This activity increases labor, which adds even more cost to the grocery who is already losing money on the product. Placing the dairy all the way in the front of the store would mean lugging all that product farther from the dock, increasing the labor margin even more. The article I read made the claim, “no store in America will place dairy up front”, which is patently false. Wegman’s stores, headquartered in Rochester, New York, repeatedly places a convenience case for milk and other dairy products up front near the checkouts as a customer service.
Stores place Bakeries in back so the aroma of baked bread will entice customers through the store, therefore tricking them to pass by impulse items. I have designed well over 100 stores, and the majority of them had the Bakeries up front or near the front. Think about the last time you went grocery shopping; did you smell bread baking? I seriously doubt it. Baking is typically done from about 4:am to 8:am, much too early for most shoppers. Some stores do “bake off” cookies or regularly make coffee in order to create aromas, but rarely does a store bake bread, cakes or pastries throughout the day. By placing a Bakery up front, any aromas that may be present will create a nice, homey, warm feeling for the customers as they enter the store.
Why are most stores cold? Scientists say that people will buy more fatty food when cold as a primitive urge sets in. Believe it or not, this last sentence, about the Scientists has been used as evidence in government policy hearings regarding America’s unhealthy eating habits. However, this is an urban myth, like the ‘Casinos pump extra oxygen into the air to keep gambler’s alert’ myth. Stores are typically cold due to one, very simple truth: food keeps fresher longer when it is cold. Stores are filled with refrigeration, and in less-green stores the cases are open (called air-screen cases). Cold air is being constantly circulated in the store due to all this refrigeration. Stores like Texas’ HEB even house their entire produce departments inside a giant cooler; as customers walk in they probably don’t even realize they are walking through a huge refrigerator. This isn’t some evil plot created by grocers to keep people fat; it’s simply a way to preserve the food.
Stores put candy at the checkout so kids will want it. Okay, I’ll give you this one, stores do indeed place candy, small toys, gum, baseball cards, etc. at the checkout in order to generate last minute impulse sales. They will also place popular gossip magazines, nail files, soda pop, breath mints, Twinkies (TM), batteries, screw driver sets, and anything that someone may have forgotten to buy but just might need. However, in most stores’ defense, the display racks these items have been placed on are many times provided by an outside company who may even take care of the labor to keep it stocked and simply pass on a percentage of the profit to the store. In most of these cases the outside company is the one who determines what is put on the racks, not the store. Getting free fixtures, free merchandising, and free stocking labor is usually irresistible to store owners, however I have designed many stores where the fixture needed to be a bit more “upscale” and/or the store owner wanted different merchandise up by the register. Store owners and operators who don’t take the bait and go for the easy impulse-buy-rack can benefit from extra wine sales, or items which are made right in the store.
Stores place more expensive items at eye level. Yep, I’ll give you this one too, but only partially. It’s not that the items at eye level are more expensive, it’s usually because the items have a higher profit margin. In the case of WalMart, companies who want their product placed at eye level pay a much higher “slotting fee”. In the case of Nature’s Fresh NW (now owned and operated by Wild Oats/Whole Foods) local items, organic and natural items were placed in this prime location regardless of profit margin or price. Many stores with in-house brands will place their branded items at this level while their competitors are placed lower or higher. Another thing that may determine shelf placement is the SKU, the Shelf Keeping Unit. The SKU lists how many of each item from one brand may be placed in a row. If the item is in a container too big to fit on the shelf at eye level, the store may move it to another shelf.
Stores keep lower light levels around the perimeter to create a false “homey” feel. This is only part of the possible story. Light levels are high in the aisles so customers don’t trip on anything that may have spilled, and so box and can labels are more easily read. The light levels around the wide-aisled perimeter don’t have to be this bright. Most of the glass cases are located along the perimeter and they are internally illuminated. Keeping the lighting a bit lower around the cases will make them seem brighter and will highlight the product inside. The same thing is especially true at the Produce Department where true-color spot lights can really make the vegetables and fruit “pop” when the overall ambient light is kept slightly lower.
I’m not saying grocers don’t play a few “tricks” to get customers to buy more. This is a capitalist society and merchants have every right to make a dollar. However, not everything they do is an insidious act to dupe the consumer.



