I just read an interesting article in Time magazine titled “Decoding the Grocery Store,” and it reminded me that though I don’t often see them as such, grocery stores are after all businesses looking to extract as much money from you as they can. Take milk for instance. Have you ever noticed that they are almost always the farthest away from the entrance as possible. You’ll be forced to walk past hundreds of tempting items before you get to it. They say everyone buys at least two impulse items for every item on a shopping list. I don’t know how true that is because I rarely use a shopping list. I buy everything on impulse!
Here is a portion of the article online. To see the full article you’d have to get the hardcopy. The hardcopy has a three page foldout of a typical grocery store (layout of a Safeway to be exact) with 23 facts that you may or may not know about. I’ll just list some of the ones that I find most interesting. These are exerpts from the foldout in the article.
2 The long walk The long center aisles force you to walk past lots of things you didn’t know you wanted until you saw them
3 Processed food Convenience often means dietary danger. Read the labels to see how much fat, sugar and salt you will be getting
9 Aisle ends High-profit items are placed for maximum temptation. Studies show that people buy two unlisted items for every item on their shopping list
10 Kids’ cereals They’re often placed at a child’s eye level, and their packaging is designed to entice. Nearly all are loaded with sugars and other additives
11 Adult cereals Be wary of health claims on boxes. One trick: the healthier ones tend to be the hardest to reach. Look for high fiber and no added sugars
13 Salty snacks Companies pay to display vast quantities of these highly profitable foods. The price to you: lots of calories, too much salt and virtually no nutrients
14 Soda Soft drinks are the biggest source of sugars in American diets. Fruit drinks aren’t necessarily better. They often have more added sugars than soda
15 Bottled water Tap water in the U. S. is safe to drink, and it’s cheap. Bottled waters are expensive and very profitable, and 40% of them started out as-yes-tap water
23 Checkout You’re almost done, but there’s one last row of temptations. Why not buy a red-bordered, paper-based mind nutrient instead of candy?
Tags: grocery store, facts, health