Instant expert: Survival tips for the savvy supermarket shopper

Grocery shopping is one of those jobs that someone has to do. It is repetitive andregular and for most it's a chore.

• Hear the next instalment of Wanita Bates's Instant Expert column Tuesday on your local Morning Show

If you're a grocery store, you love the regularity and you know that job one isto sell product. So you need to get those shoppers in, and to keep them in.

It's simple: the longer supermarketscan keep you in the store, the more money you are going to spend.

Food shopping has changed over the last couple of decades.We are spoilt for choice. My local supermarket has 48,000different items.

When the clerk asks me as I cash out, "Did you find everythingyou're looking for?" I want to say, "How could I? You only have 48,000 things tochoose from."

What makes us tick, and buy

Retailers have grown incredibly savvy with research into consumer behaviour andpsychology. They know what makes us tick and what makes us buy.

The bookBrandwashed by Martin Lindstrom gives you a look into the lengths thatretailers will go to part you from your hard earned cash. Lindstrom says his goal isnot to tell us to stop buying, because that would be impossible, but it's to help usunderstand "today's newest hidden persuaders."

Let me give you a bit of background on grocery shopping. Food is our third largestexpense,after shelter and transportation.

StatisticsCanada reports that in 2014, the average householdinNewfoundlandand Labradorspent just under $8,500 per household ongroceries. That's about $400 dollars over the national average.

Studies show we take a trip to the supermarket anywhere from 74 to 84 times ayear. A newspaper article in Britain reports that women spend 95 hours a year foodshopping.

Why so much time? It could have something to do with the 48,000 different itemsto choose from.

I probably run in to my local grocery store at least twice but sometimes three andfour times a week. I run in to get tea bags, although at the checkoutI have a bag oflimes, baking soda (because it's on sale), and a box of Jos.Louis's.

American writer Erma Bombeck said, "The odds of going to a store for a loaf ofbread and coming out with only a loaf of bread are three billion to one."

From the moment that you step through those glass doors the manipulation hasbegun. Every little thing that grocery stores does is cleverly and meticulouslyplanned out. There's nothing left for chance.

Coming at all your senses

Welcome to the wonderful world of supermarket psychology, where you're not hitover the head but the gentle persuasion is more like a punch with a velvet glove.

What do you see?

There are bright coloured flowers and lush greenery, and in the produce sectionthere arefat red tomatoes, shiny applesand bright green limes.

What do you hear?

It's not headbanger music, its easy listening. I feel more calm and relaxedalready. I don't feel like I want to rush out.

What do you smell?

Is that bread baking? I also smell those cute little barbecued chickens. In the firstfew milli-seconds of your visit,your senses are on bust.

Now the supermarket ishoping that with any luck, this is going to flip that switch where your stomachtakes over.

You are also standing in a kind of tropical oasis, but your suitcase has beenreplaced with a gigantic shopping cart. Lindstrom says that when thesize of the shopping cart size increases, consumers spend 40 per centmore.

How grocers guide you through the store

But I think the biggest trick that supermarkets have up their sleeves is how theymake us move through the store.Psychologists say that people prefer walking anti-clockwise, that it gives them amore pleasant experience. And if you feel good, you buy more.

So for the last two weeks,I've gone against the grain and I move clockwise withmy cart. That means I enter the grocery store and I start at theleft.

It also means I am met with a meteor shower of shopping carts coming towards me. I feellike I am in a Star Wars movie, and the shoppers I encounter are giving me theeye.

A retail shopping consultant says that shoppers who move clockwise to the left willspend $2 less per trip on average than a shopper who moves with the herd ofshoppers to the right.

In the aisles, take a look at the shelves. When a manufacturer places theirproduct in a grocery store, it's all about location, location, location! Theallocationof shelf space is a serious issue in retail business. It is one of the most importanttools for attracting customers' attention.

The best place for your product is at eyelevel, and manufacturers pay a slotting fee to get that prime shelf space.Never, ever buy at eye level. If you want to save money, look down.

Most grocery stores place their most expensive items at eye level and place thebargain brands on the bottom shelves. Manufacturers pay for this space. Thisarrangement guides you toward the pricier items, since they're literally right infront of your face.

You can learn a lot from cereal

In a study by the Cornell Food & Brand Lab, researchers watched shoppers buy 40per cent of the items in their carts from shelves that were within 12 inches of eyelevel.

Never, ever buy at eye level. If you want to save money, look down

To combat this trick, look up and then look down. If you are aware that the mostexpensive items are within 12 inches of eye level. Then look somewhere else.

This rule stands except for when you get to the cereal aisle because those foodsthat are meant to appeal to kids, so the flashier and more expensive cereals at kids-eye-level. Researchers at Cornell have found that the packaging on kid-targeted cereal isdesigned so that the cartoon characters on the boxes make eye contact with the little folks passing by.

Then there are the bumpouts, thosedisplays and shelves that curve or jut out.Theycatch your eye and they make the merchandise more tempting.

I've seen cookiesand tea and mustards and pasta and olive oil bumpouts, and while not proud tosay this they suck me in every time. I once bought orange honey mustard. Whatwas that about?

Speed bumps for your grocery cart

Supermarkets are organized to slow you down so you'll buy more. The averagestore contains 73 product displays to stop you in your tracks.

There's something called adjacency. That'swhen you go to pick up your box of teaand,if you look down the aisle,what else do you see? Cookies.

The next thing you know,you havechocolate chip cookies and ginger snaps in your cart. Proximity, your mind (or stomach)and the grocery store have colluded against you.

Another supermarket trick:the dairy department is always located as far away from the front door aspossible.So if you nip in to buy eggs or yogurt, cheese or milk, for customers it means thatyou will have to walk the length of the store,passing bumpouts and other temptingproducts, justto get there.

I find dairy is the only aisle where Ihave to stop and let someone with a cart get by me. It's all the better to slow youdown.

I am always learning at my grocery store. About five years ago,I was goingthrough the cash and the sale was four cans of tomatoes for $5. So,I bought fourand when I was checking out,I asked the clerk, "What if I only bought one?What would that cost?"

The young woman said, "Well,then,it's $1.25 each."

What! I didn't have to buy fourcans to get the sale price. Now that's news you can use.

Speaking of the checkout,you'll spend about 55 minutes per month in that line at the grocerystore, according to a British newspaper report.

Have you ever seen all the grocery lanes open?No. That'sbecause they want you linger there, to look at the magazines,and the chocolate,and the gum. How many Cherry Blossoms have I bought on my way through theline?I don't even want to guess.

If you have children, this is the most dangerous place in the grocery store.

They are, indeed,the direct target. The items placed here are called Pester Power Items. Oras I like to refer to it, nag the parents mercilessly.

Top 10 quick shopping tips

Now that you know how you're being manipulated and swayed by thesupermarket, here are my Instant Expert ten quick tips to break free of the powerthat supermarkets have on your shopping experience.

• 1. Do not go shopping on an empty stomach.
• 2. Eat an apple before grocery shopping as it will encourage you to buy morefruits and vegetables.
• 3. Write a list. Bring the list with you. Only shop from the list.
• 4. Enter the store and go left. Go directly to the aisle where youritem is located.
• 5. Don't take a shopping cart. If you only have a few items, take the handbasket.
• 6. Bring your own music. Make it lively and keep pace as you speed through theaisles.
• 7. Leave the children at home.
• 8. Look down, look way down. Buy the store name or the generic brand.
• 9. Stick to your list!
• 10. Grocery shop on Mondays or Tuesdays as they are the least busy shoppingdays. If you go at dinnertime,the checkout lines will be even shorter.