Shoppers may not realise that a store's layout isn't only designed to be convenient, it may also encourage them to spend more time and money.
From certain box colours to make fruit and vegetables appear 'fresher' to the size of your basket, supermarkets have clever ways to get the most out of your trip to the shops. And according to an expert, the psychological tricks begin as soon as you walk through the door in some cases.
Consumer psychologist Dr Cathrine Jansson-Boyd from Anglia Ruskin University spoke to The Mirror about some of the ways in which shops do this.
Dr Jansson-Boyd explains: "The higher-end supermarkets, like Waitrose, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer, they tend to want to project a perception as soon as you walk in the door that it's a good shop and everything is fresh, so they'll likely stick fruit and vegetables and maybe some flowers by the entrance.
"This is because, when we see fruit and vegetables we perceive them to be high quality and good for us, we don't associate them with low quality.
"The supermarkets then enhance this initial fresh perception with the boxes they store the fruit and vegetables in.
"They might have green boxes or light brown ones and these are used because they look earthy and so they reinforce the idea that everything is very natural and healthy."
She adds: "Some shops will have their produce in blue boxes and this is meant to make it look very fresh, as that's a colour we might associate with freshness."
The expert also explained how traditional handheld baskets stopped shoppers from going overboard and buying too much, as the basket would become too heavy.
However, newer wheelie baskets are much bigger than the old handheld ones which could trick people into thinking that they're buying less.
"They can almost hold the same amount as a small trolley, but because it's a basket, you have the perception that you're buying less," Dr Jannson-Boyd explains. "So when you're trying to save money, using one of these baskets is not necessarily a good thing to do, because you do tend to fill them up."
She added: "It looks like people have dropped the baskets by the tills while shopping, but often that's not the case, they put them there because it means it will be easy to grab the bigger basket on wheels as you come in than go all the way up to the tills to get the smaller one."
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