Retail tricks: How stores make you spend more (CBC Marketplace)

this is marketplace lured by an irresistible deal how much do you think you spent on your impulse buys movie $500 we take a deep dive into your mind it was 2 for 3 which I thought was a fabulous deal and expose retail tricks that make you spend big one ad that they're showing me is like crack cocaine we're gonna teach you how to fight back against the hard sell a lot of the press weed and tactics are working on your subconscious brain you're just not aware of it and take a ride in the marketplace Time Machine the experts that we checked with all agree that we've been brainwashed by all those advertisements and label claims this is your marketplace I love the spicy foods ever find yourself being lured in reaching for items not on your list read some habanero pepper sauces too you're not alone research shows nearly all of us buy on impulse that's good all right to learn why we're going deep inside the minds of these shoppers feels cold for the spies these headsets track activity in the brain the glasses follow my movements what our testers see and feel as they shop is being recorded so high-tech your favorite stores use all kinds of tricks of the trade to get you to spend to test just how effective these tactics are we're setting loose a team to make over this independent grocery store Sun Valley they'll put in place the secrets the big guys use when we're done we'll see if shoppers here buy more of course stores of every kind are using creative tactics to get you to spend half of the shoppers we spoke to said they've spent $100 or more on impulse one in 10 say those purchases caused them financial strain could knowing more help us resist those impulses and save money to find out we've recruited volunteers to test out Sun Valley before and after our retail makeover say I'm good at avoiding the the strategies I'd like to think I was a bit of a savvy shopper Jeff Gooden and Kay carb think they're smart shoppers maybe you do too almost 9 out of 10 shoppers we surveyed believe they're aware of the strategies retailers use some olive oil to find out exactly what kind of impact these tricks can have our testers will be closely monitored our guide here is Diana Liu catchy just 95 percent of all our decisions are driven by emotion and this has to do with the way the brains are wired her company uses neuroscience to tap into our emotions these headsets they pick up frustration that's the redline excitement the blue line and just how engaged you are that's the Green Line how do you feel about someone watching your brain work as you're shopping that's kind of creepy I'll be interested to see the results for sure so here's your assignment thank you this is your grocery list we're hoping you'll shop for a little dinner party we're also giving our shoppers the option to pick up anything else that catches their eye here's Geoff's brain at work from 10 feet away he catches sight of something he likes it's very specific of exactly where he's looking exactly and then how is this useful to a retailer this is information they would otherwise never know they get to see in real-time how somebody feels second-by-second how people make decisions beyond what they're willing to tell you Diana will take this data back to her lab to compare how our shoppers react both before and after the makeover take these off the shelf and I see how these fit up here Sun Valley's owner Jim Beck's Asst competes with major chains with hefty budgets for state of the art shopping science so to help we've recruited by more expert Brin Weingard certainly the big guys are using this consumer psychology the neuroscience so that people will come in enjoy their experience more and spend more money Bryn's our retail and marketing consultant okay so this is Sun Valley she's usually hired by multi-million dollar companies to pump up sales these cans you might not want at eye level but she's agreed to lend her expertise to our experiment to see if the latest retail intelligence will get Sun Valley's customers to spend more ninety nine twenty a few days later were ready to put her plans in place we wait for the last shoppers to leave Sun Valley for the night and our makeover team moves in of course Bryn's here too and Jim with a team of staff you want that people oh I'm thinking both fees on tables go we've got until the store reopens in the morning to put all of Bryn's buy more ideas in place hey guys it's got these buggies down the aisle out of the way right away everyone sets to work cleaning up and creating more space yeah I use over here water over here carts on this side great Bryn's first suggestion what do you see here that's just too crowded oh we have to kind of squeeze by exactly and there's interesting research to say that when women's bums or rear ends were grazed they actually were more likely to leave the store within 5 minutes really and someone did a study on that someone actually did a study on that grazed bums no more out these bins go here she has a strategy that's been sneaking up on all of us for years bigger baskets since the 1970s basket sizes have increased about threefold and so baskets that are larger mean that people buy more things because they figure they're shopping job isn't over until they've filled that basket psychology behind the price signs - I'm Jim we're wondering about all caps in the interest of consistency that's not what you guys sent me I don't mean to send you back to the drawing board but that way it's like perfecto thank you Evernote is sale signs all look alike here's a surprise there are three colors that are processed by the brain at a very subconscious level before your conscious brain is able to process it and that's red and yellow and white I feel like I'm conscious when I'm in the grocery store but you're telling me there's something else going on that I'm not even aware of a lot of the persuasion tactics that are at work in a retail space are working on your subconscious brain you're just not aware of it hmm now that sounds sneaky another trick on the subconscious limiting the number of sale items shoppers are allowed to buy what that will create is a concept of scarcity in people's minds so they'll be more likely to want to maximize to the limit of four so only five per customer or something like that and people think oh wow I better get it I better get all five so a little bit lower try three inches higher just a little bit higher new signs above the aisles too but not too much information on those when you hunt for what you want you buy more along the way the nights just getting started but the pressures already on moving along but didn't have the cameras in her face would be quicker we'll check back in just a bit Bruce Chambers is a former advertising executive who spent 30 years in the business the average alcohol bill in restaurants was 40% higher when slow music was playing nowadays he broadcasts a regular feature on CBC Radio revealing tricks of the trade I'm at a stage in my career where I'd sort of like to begin to undo some of the wrongs that I've done what he knows if marketers can engage our emotions quickly enough and strongly enough we can have made the purchase and be out the door before our rational mind says hey what just happened here so you're saying marketers don't really want you to think I think they'd rather we didn't think how would we turn it off oh here it is whoo back at Sun Valley another idea to get more money out of your wallet expensive pre-made meals at the front of the store this is great so these sandwiches are going into this unit once this unit is clear when you're in a hurry you're less likely to care about price you know what would be nice make up there those hippy snacks we got right there but Bryn's plans to move this lower-cost fruit away from the front causes some friction killing my sales nobody's gonna buy it again nobody in there oh yeah nah it's a dead zone all right he's not convinced this strategy will work you might not be either yet I need to have a refrigerator nobody I know they're gonna die and we have so much to put in this section right like you've all right let's try yeah let's try Brynn wins this one but there's still lots of changes to make and only a few hours left before Sun Valley opens in the morning dazed and confused does IKEA profit from the lost my list was table legs and the bed and is that all you got no I got lost what's the small items two plus vintage brainwashing so you don't need all those polishes after all have you made big impulse buys share your shopping regrets at cbc.ca slash marketplace your marketplace getting you the real deal we're revealing the insider information retailers use to get you to buy more and who haven't bought more than they intended from Ikea alright so successful they're now doubling the number of locations across Canada even though most trips there go something like this I was lost like I actually got lost I find it confusing I have to go through everything first and then finally get to where I want yes those winding walks through showroom after showroom are confusing on purpose according to retail experts so what were you here to buy today a mirror and what's all this then pillows I have another one in rivers and lots of candles bits in here and chocolates of course we bought a kid's cap so that was not on the list was that your idea yeah my list was table legs and a bed and is that all you got I bought some Christmas wrapping paper Christmas decorations it's all baubles oh and a small gift items love it all these shoppers have experienced something called the Gruen effect a phenomenon named after the architect who actually invented malls it refers to that moment when people become disoriented forget what they actually came to buy and start shopping on impulse Bruce Chambers was a marketing insider for 30 years now someone does go into Ikea and spends way more than they plan to is IKEA to blame the retailer's themselves are only playing the role that they're supposed to play to maximize shareholder return exactly how much do you think you spent on your impulse buys I'm living $500 really I spent about 30 dollars more IKEA won't say if its store design is intended to disorient shoppers only that it's meant to provide inspiration whatever the intention there's no question that the layout does inspire a lot of impulse shopping close to a third of the shoppers we surveyed said they often regret the buys they made on impulse 5 percent said giving in to those buys meant they couldn't pay for necessities as for the average amount of debt Canadians oh it's now over $21,000 each imagine what our personal lifestyle would be like if we could try to ignore some of those messages and spend a little bit less and therefore we wouldn't have to work so hard good luck with that especially once you get a look at this latest sophisticated strategy our makeover team is installing this monitor it's got a little secret just walk up to it and be judged the ability to do something called facial coding it can actually detect if you're a man or woman young or old see she gets an ad for chicken grace and he gets one for beef is there any benefit to consumers from all of this as a consumer might say well yeah it's nice that I'm not being bothered by all those other ads but in fact that one ad that they're showing me is like crack cocaine that is a really really hard one to resist another thing most of us can't resist samples if we are given something for free feel as though we are indebted and therefore more likely to purchase what it was we were given do you think that most consumers realized that that's part of the process part of the deal when they take a sample yeah so most don't this is actually a very subconscious process our team brings in Sun Valley's new sampling station finally 4:30 in the morning and the new improved store is just about ready last one but before we go one final touch changing the music believe it or not slow tempos slow shoppers down increasing the amount of time spent in the store and increasing purchases by as much as 38% Jim will track a months worth of sales with Bryn's new strategies but we're already rigging up two new test shoppers Chalisa Villani karim and trevor Theobald I'd say I'm pretty savvy the odd time a couple bags of chips are will show up in the carpet that's okay let's see how they do soon enough the new prepared meal section at the front has both shoppers attention remember the blue line it shows a positive feeling excitement look at Trevor's reaction starting to peak as he grabs a meal from the new hot stand I just didn't need a lot of thought so I walked in it was there I guess if I wasn't shopping for all this I could have grabbed it paid and left but he could have been in here for 45 seconds what about the new marinade display it actually attracted me because it was right next to the meat same for Trevor his eyes zone in another positive peak and in his card it goes compare that to when Jeff bought the same item on his list the red frustration line spiked as he scanned the overwhelming amount of choice the sampling station wow it is really good maybe that feeling of indebtedness has been triggered she adds it to her card and she's not the only one buying in in a matter of hours ten cases South how much of a disadvantage are shoppers at if retailers are using techniques that actually bypass their conscious mind people will always make the decisions consciously it is not possible for anybody to have the kind of power to make you do something you don't want to do the science is not there but the science is there to show and I think everybody should be aware that most of your decisions are being made at an emotional level before starting their shopping all four of our testers said they were disciplined shoppers but by checkout time three had given in to impulse I got jello red hot sauce there got the extra hot move at the end of the aisle and I did get the Rye betta as for the cream cheese it was because I saw it was on sale I figure you know I like the tin that's a keeper I wouldn't usually buy romaine lettuce and I definitely usually wouldn't buy two packages cuz I wouldn't need it but it was 2 for 3 which I thought was a fabulous deal maybe you can relate according to our poll the most popular reason for making an impulse buy it was on sale our brain test shows our changes did impact what our testers bought it also found a drop in overall frustration after overstock areas were cleared Sun valleys regulars are buying into I like the way the hot foot is in the front I just had a general impression that it's for a mirror we're gonna teach you how to fight back against the hard sell try to spot the message try to spot what's going on check out our buy last tip sheet and our marketplace time bomb explodes a polished claim fed up with self checkouts find out what we're doing about it right now on facebook.com slash CGC marketplace companies have been trying to get you to buy stuff you don't need for years Ready Set it's a time bomb flashback 1976 furniture polishes are they really necessary the experts that we checked with all agree that we've been brainwashed by all those advertisements and label claims you know the kind of meme they say furniture polishes are necessary to protect the finish from drying out of the furniture being manufactured over the past 20 years a furniture salesman and a manufacturer say it's not necessary to maintain or protect finishes with polishes or waxes the finish itself is more durable than anything that can be applied over it what happens is that every time you wax or polish you're really applying another sticky layer to catch the dust litter than a fingerprint if this had been in a home and had the same type of glossy finish it would have been lacquered and I would say don't do anything to it except don't put your nail polish remover on the surface that's all when you say don't do anything to it from day to day how's your taste it yes so you don't need all those polishes after all you just need a little elbow grease and a clean cloth for polishing and dusting that was yesterday's upsell today it's all about tapping into your subconscious so did all those insider tricks pay off for Sun Valley's owner Jim Beck says cos I'm gonna foot traffic has coming up on a weekly basis and it's just not one week it's been four weeks consecutive so we're very happy and pleased about that we love the grabber go section the homemade soups we have in that section have gone up huge in sales at 25% increase it was right here and and she's starving so we needed to get something ready made the cut fruits we have there we've seen a huge increase in that another 20% and even more for these dips at the front good news for Jim he believes it's good for his shoppers too we're also providing the items that our customers didn't have in our store before they seems to be need there they're buying them so therefore you know the result is went for them went for us but if you want to protect yourself from falling under the spell of the Trix retailers use I would recommend not shopping on an empty stomach this is a basic but a lot of people do it don't shop unconsciously make sure that you have a list and then that's all that you'll buy you try to spot the message try to spot what's going on check out our marketplace by last tip sheet bigger carts mean bigger spending just use your hands or reach for the smallest cart or basket don't get mazed and confused by store layouts that make you forget what you're really looking for stick to your list skip last minute sales pressure can make you buy more of what you weren't looking for and tune out that music it makes you buy more plug in your headphones and shopped fast upbeat music marketplace don't go shopping without it the ultimate ride-along okay see he's in a hurry right yes it is why some tow truck drivers are desperate to get you hooked we're wondering if you're following the bylaws showed up here without him actually calling you in rushing to help you out or racing for secret Commission like my car back I felt Duke I felt tricked shouldn't people know when they're brought here that tow truck drivers are secretly benefiting you

Channel: CBC News

Views: 1,485,574

Rating: 4.8084154 out of 5

Keywords: CBC News, CBCNews, CBC broadcasting media, public broadcasting news, Canadian News, Canadian Broadcasting Corportation (TV network), CBC News Network, cbc marketplace, marketplace, marketplace cbc, shopping, retail, impulse buys, stores, behavioural psychology, consumer, buying

Id: zVplgl3-pRM

Length: 22min 21sec (1341 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 27 2015