When we go to grocery stores, we often purchase basic necessities, such as bread, flour, sugar, eggs and milk. It’s common to come out of the grocery stores carrying huge bags of groceries. There’s nothing wrong with situation, unless it happens because we succumb to the usual impulse trap. We should know that grocery stores understand typical shopping behaviors and they implement different tactics to encourage more purchases. A common method is to make a shopping list, so we could stick to it. This is our primary defense against impulse spending. We should also know that grocery stores really love to play on our senses. The smell of freshly baked bread could be piped into some parts of the store. Many of these stores have an internal eating place, where we could eat all the snacks, bread and food in the store. After busy shopping and walking through rows after rows, many people think that it’s the right time for them to get a few snacks. In this case, we should eat from home. If we are well-fed, it is much less likely that we will succumb into such temptation. If we go to the grocery store while being hungry, it would be quite likely that we will become the slaves to so much temptation.
We should also be able to stick to our shopping list if we bring just enough cash. We should know how much the entire list is going to cost. We should leave credit, debit and ATM cards behind at home while we are shopping. There should only be just enough money in our wallets. Another way to reduce the amount of purchase is by taking the hand basket, instead of the huge grocery cars. As we put more stuff into the basket, we will be reluctant to add unnecessary stuff. In this case, we wouldn’t be encouraged to spend more. Just before we go to the checkout counter, we should review our basket or cart. We should evaluate our purchases and often, we find that some items go to the cart, simply due to impulse buying decision.
As an example, we should consider whether we really need that many packages of cookies and chips. Do we really get a great deal on those rolls of toilet paper. By taking only a few minutes, it is possible that we will be able to significantly the amount of impulse purchases. Just bringing limited amount of cash isn’t enough, we should also set a time limit. The longer we stay, the more likely that we return to car and take our cards, if put them in the cars. Grocery stores know what kind of background music that they should play to put people in a shopping mood. Basic items like milk, bread and flour are placed farthest in the back; so we would be more eager to visit the electronics and apparel sections. The best way to do this is by avoiding the grocery stores time trap. There should be an alarm app in our smartphone that can notify us that it’s time to leave the store. We could negate store owners tactic by using our own tactic. Reducing the time in grocery stores by 30 minutes could significantly reduce our annual shopping expenses.