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View Full Version : Supermarket.inc... program alert, Jan 27, 9pm, cnbc



Gina
1-27-11, 10:55am
I saw an ad this morning about Supermarket.inc a program (series?) on cnbc (cable) tonight, January 27, at 9pm eastern and pacific times. It seems to be about how 'they' get us to buy more than we need.

From an ad found at YouTube: CNBC Supermarkets Inc. - Secrets Revealed From: CNBCtv ... Did you know that some stores use heat maps to track which aisles you walk down — and which ones you don't? Or that they put the milk at the end of the aisle so you're forced to pass a hundred other items on your way to get it?

CNBC Supermarkets Inc Premieres Thursday, January 27th 9p | 10p | 12a | 1a ET ... (more info)

**** and some clips at YouTube****

http://www.youtube.com/user/CNBCtv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KvWVBGoEBo&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/CNBCtv#p/a/u/1/ePzO5OplaSQ

http://www.youtube.com/user/CNBCtv#p/a/u/2/mNtJvXD0URQ

Gina
1-28-11, 1:00pm
This turned out to be an interesting program. I knew some of the tricks stores use to get us to buy more (placement of products, the perimeters, meaningless but effective wording re 'sales', club card information gathering) , but not all they mentioned. I had no idea about the infrared tracking devices. And cameras of course. The most interesting trick - when they simply double the size of the grocery carts, people buy 40% more.

What was relieving was how little waste they claimed - when compared to all the food that is sold during a normal day, very little was tossed or went to food banks. The profit margin is too narrow to allow much waste.

The segment on Whole Foods was interesting too. :)

loosechickens
1-28-11, 3:46pm
Thanks for posting that OP, Gina.....I would have missed the program otherwise. I grew up with a father in the grocery business, so knew most of the general "how to get 'em to buy" things, but found it really interesting how the science of that has gone high tech and been taken to levels that I know my father, were he still alive, would have marveled at.

back in the day, in the forties and fifties, as an up and coming young executive, he became very well known for pioneering a lot of the "point of sale" pairing of items, such as putting caramels next to the apples in the produce department at Halloween, or putting jars of tartar sauce right in the display of fresh fish, etc. to trigger impulse purchasing......even had lots of his stuff written up in trade journals like Chain Store Age, etc. but it's gone way beyond his wildest dreams, that's for sure.

I was only a little girl when I had it explained to me why the milk was in the back of the store, why the store put the candy bars right at little kid eye level, why "buy one, get one FREE" made a lot more profit than a 1/2 price sale, etc. When I was little, he would sit there and dissemble advertising for me, on TV and in print, and show me how to find the "hooks", and the invisible, unnoticed things that we now call dog whistles in political advertising, but which are present in all advertising. Nothing in the ad, not the smallest detail is by chance, and he would show me all the ways we can be manipulated by stuff that we don't even notice.

I really enjoyed that show, but I sure did miss my Dad, because it would have been fun watching it with him, and talking about it. May he rest in peace! He's been gone since 1987, but there's hardly a day that goes by that I don't think about him, or something he taught me. He was one of a kind.

redfox
1-28-11, 4:10pm
I am so glad I shop at a food co-operative, which is member owned. And carry a list, which I stick to! Thanks for the links & info.

Polliwog
1-29-11, 10:59pm
I am so glad I shop at a food co-operative, which is member owned. And carry a list, which I stick to! Thanks for the links & info.

I use a list too and I don't grocery shop when I am hungry, otherwise I veer from my list.

Linda

crunchycon
1-30-11, 7:54am
I shop at Aldi (one brand of everything), a 7th-day Adventist store (which is sort of co-op-ish), and at the produce stand at the end of my street 9 months out of the year. It doesn't make me immune, but there are fewer of the "tricks of the trade." I do have to shop at Publix to get the ingredients for my laundry detergent, and they are VERY good at merchandising. It's tough not to succumb. And don't get me started on Fresh Market.

Gina
1-30-11, 4:13pm
Thanks for posting that OP, Gina.....I would have missed the program otherwise. I grew up with a father in the grocery business, so knew most of the general "how to get 'em to buy" things, but found it really interesting how the science of that has gone high tech and been taken to levels that I know my father, were he still alive, would have marveled at.
You're welcome. I love that sort of entertaining, informing program.

Years ago I read a book about shopping, advertising and what many of the secrets were at that time. The Hidden Persuaders perhaps? I don't remember. It was very informing. This program was a continuation of that. As savvy shoppers we think we are immune - and of course I think I am too - but I am human, and they know more about the workings of my own brain than I do. Almost every trip I'll pick up something that wasn't on my list... maybe they got me too. :laff:

loosechickens
1-30-11, 8:21pm
Yes, I remember that book the Hidden Persuaders, too. It's like the way we think how we feel about things is just so unique to us. I was sitting in a college library some time ago, reading old issues of American Demographics, and found a really neat article about the 168 advertising demographics that marketers slice us up into, to market to us.....lo and behold, as I looked down the descriptions of the 168 groups........all of a sudden I found one that fits us like a custom made glove....yep, we're not nearly so unique as we thought, hahahaha.

solomia
2-3-11, 9:32am
Saw it too. They have some interesting one-hour documentaries on CNBC. Not too much many of us didn't already know, but interesting anyway. I don't particularly care for such gigantic stores. Considering that most of us complain about having so little time for this and that, the last thing I would think anyone would want to do is have to walk around an acre or more of store just to get groceries. I guess the larger shop cart thing shouldn't be a surprise since it seems pretty common that the more space we have, the more stuff we fill it with - house, closets, sheds, etc.

H-work
2-3-11, 11:32am
I have a household full of kids and live far from town, so I buy lots and lots of groceries at one chop. Grocery carts are too small for me, I love the bigs ones. But even those I can fill up 2x :) But in stores like Target, where I'm only picking up an item or two, I love the hand baskets.