Impulse shopping is something we all get roped into and when we are swanning through the aisles of the supermarket it’s easy to add a few items to our basket impulsively and before long you’re going through the check out with double the items you even thought you needed.

To start, let’s take a look at the following 10 sneaky tricks grocery stores use:

Playing slow or depressing music

Have you ever been to a supermarket and had a close listen to their soundtrack. It is purposely slow and relaxing so you chill out and take your time walking through the aisles and exploring the specials and offers. The supermarket chains purposely don’t play fast and upbeat tracks as psychologically this will increase the speed of shoppers and might make them purchase fewer items.

Hiding the shopping baskets

You enter the supermarket looking for a couple of items so you head to find a small basket, after searching madly for a while you wind up just grabbing a cart so you can whiz through the aisle. Sure enough, you start adding items to your cart and before long it is overflowing with goodies. This is another clever tactic of the supermarkets to entice us to spend more money.

Giving out free samples

Everyone loves free goodies and cooking a little sample or giving away some items in the store is a simple and effective way of roping you in to spend even more money. The free goods will make you spend more in the long run and you will exit the store with way more than you entered the store even wanting (or needing).

Rearranging the store

The supermarket crew are a smart bunch and rearrange the stores so that when you head in to grab your favorite item it has mysteriously moved and in its place is something else they think you might be interested in buying as well as your usual product – cheeky maybe, smart definitely.

Placing the most profitable items at eye level

The oldest trick in the boost is putting the popular items at eye level so you don’t need to hunt around, the best and most profitable items for the store are just an arms length away, no need to poke around and find the item you want – just grab this item and you will boost the stores income and send their profits skyrocketing.

Putting items at the end of the aisle

Aisle ends are the enticing little items that are added to the end of the aisle that scream at you ‘buy me’, and this tactic is a clever way for the supermarkets to trick you into buying more. If you go to a supermarket and don’t see these heavily promoted end you’re probably got your eyes to the ground as it is a difficult promo to miss.

Tucking away the milk at the back of the store

Have you ever gone into the store needing just one item – milk – and having to navigate your way through aisle after aisle of goods before you finally reach the most basic of grocery items at the far back corner of the supermarket. By adding the milk at the very back of the store supermarkets are hoping to get shoppers to find more grocery items on their way through the aisle and spend more.

The bottom line: Ignore the tricks, spend as little time as possible in the store, and get only what you need … with cash!