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Originally Posted by Bob-a-rama
If a grocery store is not using psychology to get people to buy more than they came in for, they are missing a great opportunity. And if a competitor uses that strategy, they will gain market share over the one who doesn't.
In business, I remember, the only reason to be in business is to make money --- and to find out why things happen, follow the money.
I've read (don't know how true it is) that the most profitable items are at eye level, and the things children like most are at their eye level. It would be foolish to arrange the shelves any other way IMHO.
Calianna, if I knew you were at my store, I'd use the scanner.
But for one person tending the scanners, it would take 4 or more cashiers to take care of the number of scanning customers in some stores.
I try not to use robots that take people's jobs away. But then I guess I'm taking another's job away by doing that. Oh well, my intentions are good.
Bob
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Oh yeah, they definitely take advantage of every possible way to get people to buy more, and yes, you're exactly right about the most profitable items being displayed at eye level, with kid-centric items displayed at their eye level. It's just that some tactics (such as the milk being at the back) are also happy coincidences that what works out best for keeping the item fresh and safe, also helps to increase impulse buys.
It's kind of you to say you'd use self scan if I was at your store.
Many people use self scan because they're under the false assumption that it's a faster way to checkout. Unfortunately, with the way that the self scan registers operate, the actual transaction takes longer:
Scan item - bar code information is sent to server.
Server looks up information on item price, and relays it back to the register.
Put item in bagging area.
After item settle in bagging area, weight of item added to bagging area is sent to server.
Server confirms that weight in it's computerized records of last item scanned is the same weight as was just added to the bagging area.
Server then signals the register to allow the next item to be scanned.
Rinse and repeat for every single item in your order.
At a regular register it's possible to scan as fast as you can pass each item over the scanner, since it only needs to send price information back to the regular register before allowing the cashier to scan the next item. So in reality, self scan takes about 4 times as long as scanning those items at a regular register, since you can scan as fast as you can pass the items over the scanner at a regular register.
If you only have a few items, and there are lines at the regular registers, it'll still be a good bit quicker to use self scan.
According to some corporate front end managers, at our store, about 1/3 of total $$ sales go through self scan, but since it's a 24 hour store, that also includes overnights when there's no regular cash register open, as well as the varying number of regular registers open during the day (more cashiers scheduled during times of day when it's likely to be busier).