Do you think you really know your supermarket? Are the products you buy  placed with a precise strategy on the shelves? We visited the supermarkets of our city and we have come to this conclusion: nothing in the supermarket  is put at random.

All the supermarkets want to achieve the end to make their customers buy as many products as possible and the most expensive ones: there are different strategies to reach the goal.

• Fruit and vegetables transmit a sensation of vivacity and colour. They are placed at the entry of the supermarket so that the customer thinks he/she is buying healthy food and feels he/she can then take the liberty to choose less healthy items, like meat or chocolate.
• In supermarkets there aren’t clocks or windows not to give time references so that customers stay longer.
• Products on special offer are displayed in central shelves, at  customers’ eye level.
• Expensive products are also displayed at customers’ eye level to promote sales.
• The most popular products, like milk or children’s snacks, are far from the entrance so that people have to walk through several lanes before finding them.
• Lanes are narrow and there are are often trolley ‘traffic jams’: customers have to stop, they watch the products around them and sometimes buy something that wasn’t in their shopping list.
• Complementary products like pasta and tomato sauce are usually in neighbouring shelves or lanes, encouraging coordinated purchases.
• The bakery department attracts people with its smell.
• Children’s toys are always placed in a visible way or near the checkout counters, so that little visitors notice them and nag their parents into buying them.
• Therefore … don’t get lost in the labyrinth and buy what you need!

Written by: Giulia Tunesi(2f), Giorgia Bernardi (2f), Giorgia Bossi(2f), Alessandro Alghisi (2e), Ileana Ganzerla (2e) Andrea Petrineschi (2b), IC Settimo Milanese, Milano (Italy)

PH. credit labyrinth (pd) pixabay