Ignore Your Impulses

Recognizing impulse buys and displays that are set up in order to get you to buy something might also save you money. You see, we all have a job to do. Your job might be to provide the items that your family needs to the household. The store’s job is to sell items that customers want and will buy and make money. Therefore, the store, knowing that you have to provide items to your family might creatively place items around their store in a specific way so you buy specific items that make them more money.

For instance, some people don’t like to take their time when they are shopping. They just want to find the item that they need and get out of the store, so they don’t have to waste too much time shopping. Unfortunately, this might bite them in the butt later. Some stores will place items on end caps so people will grab them while walking by and according to some of the stories that they have played on the news, stores will also put items at eye level so people grab the first thing that they see instead of looking on the bottom shelf or the top shelf. By doing this, they might draw you into a product that is more expensive instead of another product that is equal if not better in quality that is cheaper. Therefore, when going to the stores, it might be more of a benefit to walk down the aisle of the product that you need and scan all of the items on the shelf, so you can see their prices and any sale that they have on these products.

Another thing that you might see when you go to the store are display racks. A store might advertise a new product with appealing signage, encouraging you to try an item that you might not normally buy. This allows them to sell you this new item, and seeing that the item has its own display, you might think that the item is more prestigious, making you want to be one of the first people to try it. Pay attention to these advertisements, and do your best not to feed into them. They are created to make people want the products that they are selling, and some of them use psychology to get the consumers to buy into them. Just because the advertisements say that a person will be more original if they have the product or an advertisement shows a happy person having a good time doesn’t mean that you necessarily will have the same results with the product or that you need the product.

Impulse racks are also a hindrance when it comes to staying in your budget. Impulse racks are the racks that they put at the front of the store by the checkout. Some of these have candies on them. Some have energy shots or balloons. Some even have magazines. These racks have items that are low in price, which can at times encourage people to spend a couple extra dollars during their trip on an item that they wouldn’t normally buy. It is important to understand this. Also, understand that a lot of the candy and soda that are in the impulse buy areas are at a child’s eye level. Companies like to get a child’s attention when their parents go to the store. They know that if a child asks for a candy or a soda that parents will usually buy it for them, so they put these racks at their level to get you to buy more things.