How Do Supermarkets Manipulate People?

B2 – Upper Intermediate

When out doing your grocery shopping, you might have thought the choices you made were yours and yours alone. More often than not, though, we are being influenced by manufacturers’ manipulations. Our sense of taste and smell are exploited when we walk into a supermarket and notice the pastries and ready-to-eat food found at nearby counters.

Read the article and watch the video to know other clever tricks food marketers pull on their customers.

https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/27561/20201002/supermarkets-manipulate-people.htm#:~:text=Supermarkets%20are%20designed%20to%20persuade,route%20to%20the%20dairy%20products.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What is impulse buying? Why do we do it and how can we stop?
  2. What are the ways supermarkets make you buy more?
  3. Give some tips for spending less at supermarkets.
  4. Have you ever fallen for these tricks? Which ones worked on you?
  5. How do you make sure your grocery runs are efficient and as economical as possible?

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2 replies on “How Do Supermarkets Manipulate People?”

1. Impulse buying is the behavior we have when we decide to buy something when don’t really need. It is important to know what are the techniques used by stores to induce us to buy products, even when we don’t need them. Also, we need to think if we really need to buy something.
2. They put the bakery near the entrance, which always smells like recently cooked bread. Also, they “makeup” some products to look better.
3. Always know what are you going to buy, for example by writing a list before going to the store, and focus on finding the products in the list. Don’t pay attention to other products.
4. Of course, it is difficult to resist all of them, and sometimes you even need it. Maybe because a product is on sale and you need it anyways, or by other reasons.
5. I always write a shopping list during the week, with the products I need, and then go to the store one day and buy only the things I wrote. Sometimes is ok to buy something more, maybe because you forget to add it to the list, but it is important to think if you really need it.

Good job with your answers to this lesson’s discussion questions.

Take a look at how you can improve this one a little:

They put the bakery near the entrance, which always smells like recently cooked bread

They put the bakery near the entrance, which always smells of freshly baked bread.

Happy writing!

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