Supermarket Placements

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It’s no secret that British supermarkets are in a cut-throat business. The modern supermarket is
always looking for ways to separate you from your money.

With competition fierce, global food prices rising and an ongoing recession the supermarkets
have become cannier about shaking people down.

There are some great hacks for supermarket shopping. From getting the best deals, to finding
identical food at a lower price, or just knowing how to tell when you’re being played.

Every little trick helps. Here’s what to look out for…

1. Supermarkets keep staples far apart (and hide the eggs)

No supermarket in its right mind puts all the staples in the same place (these are meat and
vegetables,bread, dairy and cleaning products). Oh no, they figure out what most people put in a
basket and place all these items as far away from each other as possible, to encourage
people to walk up and down each aisle. Many supermarkets hide the eggs away from the bread
or dairy sections (ask where they are instead of playing aisle hunting game).

Take a good look at the layout of your local supermarket, and figure out what you need to go in
advance. Now go directly from one area to the next skipping all the sections you don’t need.

2. They prey on the hungry

No, really! Never, ever go to the supermarket on an empty stomach. Eat before you go to the
supermarket. If you haven’t got any food in the house, buy a snack first and eat it as you walk
around.

Research from Cornell University’s Food & Brand lab has shown that people who haven’t
eaten all afternoon purchase higher calorie food without even realising it. When you are hungry
you buy more food, and worse food. "Even short-term fasts can lead people to make unhealthy
food choices," said Amy Yaroch, head of the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition in Omaha,
Nebraska.

3. You should look down, not up

The most profitable (and, therefore, expensive) products are always placed at eye level. Many
supermarkets charge distributors and manufacturers a fee for product placement, and this fee is
added to the price of the product. The best deals are either up high or especially stacked down
low. So when you go to the supermarket it pays to shoegaze.

4. The prices can be compared online

Now that supermarkets are putting all their information online there are starting to crop price
comparison sites for supermarkets. You usually buy more or less the same things from each
store, but they all price different ranges to attract different shoppers. It’s well worth taking the
time to crank a typical shopping list through a site like MySupermarket to find out which
supermarket offers the best deal. Most of us buy similar sorts of products every time we go to the
supermarket, and different supermarkets markup and down different products. Then get over
your innate bias and head to the supermarket that’s right for you.

5. Treats are purposely near the end of the supermarket

You’re tired; you’re bored and you have just had to choose between two-dozen different types of
secretly identical washing powder. All this decision-making has sapped your will and
destroyed your common sense. Just after the cleaning products often marks the start of all the
treats: crisps, cakes, biscuits and alcohol. These hit you when your willpower is at its lowest,
depleted from making all the other decisions at the shop.

If you’re going to buy alcohol, biscuits or crisps head to these aisles before returning to the
vegetable patch near the entrance. Buy your treats first.

6. Successful shoppers have a list or budget (but not both)

Most people go to the supermarket with a mental list of products and no idea how much they are
going to spend. If you are looking to cut costs, you should make either a list of products and stick
to it; or decide on a budget and stick to it.

If the list approach is tough, you can have one or two empty ‘treat’ slots on your list. But don’t buy
anything that isn’t on the list or isn’t in a treat slot. A better approach is often to set a budget and
count up your products as you go. Stick to the budget. If you are finding it hard to stick to a
budget consider leaving the card at home and taking the exact amount of cash you have
budgeted for.

7. Shifting down a brand doesn't make a difference

All supermarkets divide their range (and their customers) into different categories. There are four
major types of product in a supermarket:

 Premium. These are products like Tesco Finest and Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference.
You’ll also find products, like vegetables, branded as Organic, Free From, and in some
cases as health or diet products (such as Sainsbury’s Be Good To Yourself). In all cases,
you are paying extra for the branding.
 Branded. These are products made by known brands, such as Heinz, Nestle and Kellogg's.
 Own Brand. These are supermarket equivalents of branded products that are branded with
the supermarket name. Such as Tesco’s Own Brand and “by Sainsbury’s”.
 Basics. These are also Supermarket branded products, but with intentionally bad branding
to signify that they are cheaper, and less cheerful than branded products. Such as
Sainsbury’s Basics and Tesco Value.

These brands are listed in order of expense. If you’re trying to get a better deal then shift down a
brand. See if you can taste the difference between Premium and own Brand products, or from
Branded to basics. There are online guides like SuperMarketOwn that rate and review
Supermarket own brands so you can see which ones come highly rated.
8. Basics cleaning products are perfectly good enough
You should take your toiletries and cleaning products right down to the Basics level as a matter
of course. The products don’t need tasting, are just as effective at cleaning, and the savings are
huge. The only thing that separates cleaning products is branding and advertising. Don’t even
pay attention to any marketing, advertising or packaging. A cloth is a cloth. Buy the cheapest one
in the store.

9. Researching your favourite brands will pay off

Many famous brands roll their product into supermarket packaging and sell it for less money.
Biscuits, crisps and other processed food items are a big culprit here. You can save a lot of
money if you switch from your branded product to the same product being sold elsewhere.
Obviously companies don’t like to advertise the fact that they sell off their product cheaply to
supermarkets, but there are plenty of whistle-blowers from factories up and down the land. This
forum at MoneySavingExpert on supermarket brands that are really well known brands is a
good read.

10. Wake up and smell the coffee

Many people believe that supermarkets pipe the smell of bread into their stores. This artificial
bread story isn’t strictly true; most supermarkets have now installed actual bakeries in store to
create the smell and make the bread.

It’s certainly true in other stores: Cinemas routinely pipe the smell of popcorn into the foyer
though, and M&M’s World in London famously injects a powerful aroma of chocolate into the
store

But the fake aroma scam isn’t in the store, it’s in the products themselves. Many branded
products have fake aroma injected into the packaging.

Instant coffee is probably the biggest culprit here. That amazing smell you get when you open a
jar of premium instant coffee for the first time. Sorry to break this to you: it’s fake. It doesn’t
mean the coffee is better quality, just that they’ve spent your money on some fake aromas. Once
you realise this, you’ll notice that many instant coffees taste the same.

11. The supermarket trolley has never been cleaned, ever

The supermarket trolley has almost certainly never, ever been cleaned, and boy does it show up
on a microscope. E-coli is found on 50 percent of all shopping trollies, and fecal matter on
72 per cent of all trolleys (because kids stick their hands everywhere and aren’t always freshly
washed. Mmmm… e-coli and poop. Put your veggies in a plastic bag before putting them in the
trolley. And wash your food when you get home.