![\"\"](\"http:\/\/images.mentalfloss.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/article_640x430\/public\/1503.supermarket.jpg\")
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Your local grocery store is a psychological minefield, where even the bananas are ripe with mystery.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve probably seen that stores keep go-to items\u2014produce, meats, dairy\u2014on the perimeter. But did you notice that most of them are set up to make your lap run counterclockwise? \u201cNinety percent of us are right-handed, so we buy more when it\u2019s counterclockwise. It puts us closer to the shelf,\u201d says Martin Lindstrom, author of Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy<\/em>. Places that do this see sales climb 7 percent. You\u2019ll also often find the dairy section in the back left corner: Because dairy is likely on your list, stores make sure you take the longest route to get there. In fairness, it\u2019s also a more convenient place to put a fridge.<\/p>\n Psychologists weigh in on some store layouts. \u201cThey study buyers\u2019 behavior and they come and reset the store based on perceived habits,\u201d says Jake Sitler of Barry\u2019s Country Food Market in Craley, Pennsylvania. It\u2019s safe to say that nothing you see on a shelf is there by chance. The cookies on sale at the end of an aisle may look like a coincidental great deal, but they\u2019re likely the result of product placement\u2014a company paid for that real estate. It\u2019s a smart spot: Besides the checkout counter, most impulse buys occur at the endcaps. More expensive items are usually placed at an adult\u2019s eye level, while colorful cereals and treats are positioned lower\u2014to catch the gaze of children.<\/p>\n When an employee says they\u2019ll \u201ccheck in the back\u201d for an item, they\u2019re just being polite. Most stores order goods to go directly from the truck to the shelf, skipping the back room entirely. \u201cThere\u2019s an assumption we have so much stuff in our back room, and it is absolutely false,\u201d says Dara Gocheski, a former Trader Joe\u2019s employee.<\/p>\n Matt Adams, who spent 28 years as a supermarket meat cutter, says his employer frequently used nail polish remover to wipe the sell-by date off outdated items. \u201cYou guys can\u2019t do this,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat if some little old lady buys this?\u201d It turns out you can. If meat was packaged under the watch of federal inspectors, supermarkets can\u2019t change the date. But if the retailers butchered and packaged the meat themselves, they can change the label on a whim. In fact, 30 states don\u2019t regulate the expiration dates for most items.<\/p>\n Supermarkets rarely have windows or clocks. With no reference to the outside world, customers can easily lose track of how long they\u2019ve been there. Grocery store overlords may use another trick to manipulate your sense of time: small floor tiles. The incessant click-clack of a shopping cart\u2019s wheels can make customers think they\u2019re racing around and encourages them to take a relaxed pace. And stores know that at a relaxed pace, customers buy more.<\/p>\n Bananas are so important to a supermarket\u2019s bottom line that grocers know exactly what shade of banana you\u2019re most likely to buy: Pantone color 12-0752, also known as \u201cButtercup.\u201d To ensure the bananas on display are the closest to this shade, stores use a ripeness scale that ranges from one (all green) to seven (yellow with brown flecks). Some stores even use special lighting to make bananas look more appealing. \u201cThey\u2019ll filter an ambient light in front of the box used to highlight the bananas so they become more yellow,\u201d Lindstrom says. As for the water sprayed on the other produce? It makes veggies look fresh, but keeping them wet actually makes them rot faster. It also makes produce heavier\u2014and therefore pricier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your local grocery store is a psychological minefield, where even the bananas are ripe with mystery. 1. SOUTHPAWS HAVE AN INVISIBLE ADVANTAGE You\u2019ve probably seen that stores keep go-to items\u2014produce, meats, dairy\u2014on the perimeter. But did you notice that most of them are set up to make your lap run counterclockwise? \u201cNinety percent of us Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retail-trends"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=686"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1013,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions\/1013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}2. EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE<\/h4>\n
3. WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET<\/h4>\n
4. THE EXPIRATION DATE ON THAT MEAT MAY BE MEANINGLESS<\/h4>\n
5. TIME GOES BY SO SLOWLY<\/h4>\n
6. BANANAS ARE AN ART FORM<\/h4>\n