DTM’s retail investigation department is in super active mode after a strange thing happened last week.
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We – err, our investigators – dropped into a favourite hardware store, our version of Disneyland, to pick up a couple of things and to fill that empty space in the car boot, when we were stopped in our tracks.
NOTHING was where we had last seen it. Paint had migrated to the centre of the mega space. All the bargain bins had drifted far to the east. Essential electrical “stuff” had made a mad push to the back of the store and tools, which every bloke can’t live without, was making an aggressive move into the bathroom fittings territory.
We swear that there were small groups of anguished looking chaps bumping into each other in the (gasp) kitchen-ware area with looks of quiet shock and despair on their faces. They may still be there, shuffling around and whimpering softly.
Worse. The staff was milling about bumping into each other and sobbing quietly.
“Excuse me mate, but where are the 13-millimetre ring spanners?”
“Don’t really know anymore.”
As our team left the hardware store, we, err they, commented to the checkout person that it felt like someone had invaded our home in the dead of night and re-arranged the furniture.
The same thing happened at the supermarket six months ago. We are still searching for cans of coconut milk. Eggs moved three times in two weeks. Why does this keep happening?
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It turns out there’s actual science behind it. According to Choice, large stores do this to try to keep you in the store longer, trying to find things which used to be in more familiar places.
Supermarkets also put more expensive items in spaces where they’d previously put cheaper, everyday items to trick you into buying stuff you would otherwise have ignored. Spanish fish eyeballs where the eggs used to be. It’s claimed that 40 per cent of the stuff you buy in supermarkets are impulse buys, and the more confused you are, the more impulsive you become.
BUT … a serious survey in the UK showed that about 36 per cent of shoppers aged over 55 were angered by the changes. On average, those aged 55 or over spent at least 10 minutes longer in a large store after all the stock was moved around.
The younger shoppers were, the less they were likely to be annoyed. Although even a quarter of those aged 18 to 25 were likely to be distressed by sudden store layout changes.
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Other sneaky little tricks DTM can reveal after this, ahem, investigation are:
- Having fewer small shopping trolleys than big ones.
- Placing high-profit items at eye-level.
- Putting some “fake” bargains at the aisle ends.
- Grabbing shoppers by the nose with things such as hot chooks and warm bread.