This is me.. pulling up to Walmart on a sunday morning to get some milk and dog food for Zoufry, my 3 year old german shepard. I walk in, go directly to the back of the store to get the milk and then pass by the pet food and supplies aisle to grab dog food on my way out..But something stupid starts to happen. Something I hate but keeps happening whenever I come into a grocery store. I start wandering around the store with absolutely no clear intentions. From one aisle to the other, I keep putting stuff in my cart that I don't even need. I even bought chocolate and I don’t even like chocolate like that. I walked in to get 2 items but somehow ended up with 13. However, it seems like I'm not the only one who does this. In fact, grocery stores are perfectly designed to ensure that this keeps happening to millions of visitors every single day. They use every trick in the book to make us buy things we never intended on buying. We modeled the entire thing to show you the evil design of grocery stores.
The grocery store as we know it began to take shape in the early 20th century. The first self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee, revolutionizing the shopping experience by allowing customers to browse and select their own items. This concept quickly gained popularity, leading to the rise of supermarket chains. By the 1920s, notable chains like Kroger and A&P emerged, expanding across the United States and setting the stage for modern grocery retailing.
Today, the grocery industry is a massive sector in the U.S. economy. As of 2023, retail and food service sales in the United States exceeded $8 trillion
On average, shoppers spend about $174 per trip to the grocery store, a 12% increase from previous years. The industry comprises approximately 61,626 grocery stores, employing around 1.43 million people, showcasing a 1.81% increase in employment from the previous year.These numbers clearly show that these companies are making money, a lot of it.
Before grocery stores looked the way we know today, they were designed way different back then. Before self-service models emerged, grocery shopping typically involved customers requesting items from behind a counter. However, with the introduction of self-service in 1916, the layout and design of grocery stores began to evolve dramatically. It was Piggly Wiggly that started to turn things around. I don’t know why anyone would name a company as such but to their credit, they revolutionized grocery store design : the open layout, the organized by category aisles, the directional lighting, these were all new additions to the grocery store design at the time. But before we go into the nitty gritty of the numerous tricks they use to influence your purchasing decisions, we must establish how grocery stores make their money in the first place.
You see, most of us would think that grocery stores make their money by selling products. Although that’s not quite wrong, they make the most of their revenue from something else.
grocery stores don't really make as much profit as you think. Their margins are as thin as 1 to 3%. Which means If you spend 100$ at a grocery store, they’re gonna end up making 1 to 3$ dollars at most out of the 100. Considering the tremendous amount of capital it takes to run a grocery store, it’s almost impossible for companies to survive on such low profit margins. But they already know that. That’s why grocery stores are not in the food business..In fact, they’re in the real estate business.
Let’s first establish how the typical grocery store layout works. Let’s take this grocery store model as an example.
The most common layout is the grid layout. Think of the store floor as a chess board and products fall into their respective square or rectangle. When it comes to how your store would look with this Grid store layout, your retail fixtures are arranged in long rows, also known as 'runs.' They're also typically placed at right angles throughout your store,making it easier for customers to get a preview of what’s in the aisle without having to go through it. From the width of the passages to the shelves dimensions. Every square inch of the store is utilized to its fullest capacity.
The grid layout also works according to the loop concept.. Meaning the flow coming from the entrance should never cross paths with customers exit paths. Making the whole shopping experience an actual loop, where the customer is guided in and out of the store seamlessly. But one would say, all of these design strategies are present in many commercial establishments, so where does the trickery actually begin ?
Entrance
The manipulation starts the second you step inside the store. The first thing most shoppers typically encounter when they walk into a grocery store is what’s called Front of shop.
Which typically you’d find the produce section as well as the flowers section. This isn’t mere coincidence; it’s by universal design.
a store’s produce section “plays a large part in what makes it attractive to consumers, and the better its fruit and vegetable displays, the more money consumers are willing to spend—not only in the store’s freshest sections, but throughout the entire store.” Some retailers in Scandinavia and the US spray a continuous mist of water over them so they look as if they’ve been plucked from the tree and brought to you. Not only that, grocery stores use very specific directional lights aimed at fruits and vegetables to make their colors pop the most.
Now once your visual appetit is satisfied, stores have to make sure you just pick some fruits and vegetables and bounce. They need you to walk by as many items as possible. This is when the TRAFFIC BUILDER METHODS comes into play.
Ever wondered why milk and bread are always way at the back of the store?
This is not on purpose to encourage shoppers to traverse the entire store. This tactic is designed to increase the likelihood of impulse purchases along the way. Since milk is a staple item that many customers need, positioning it at the back ensures that shoppers will pass by various other products, potentially leading to additional purchases. Additionally, placing milk in the back allows stores to utilize the larger refrigeration units needed for dairy products, which are often located there. This clever layout not only maximizes sales but also plays on product discovery along the way.
Now once they get you in the central aisle section of the store, this is when the real money is made.
At the beginning of the video, I told you grocery stores are in the real estate business. This is what I mean..
50 and 75% of their profit is from Real Estate and it's called slotting fees. food companies or Brands spend a tremendous amount of money on getting certain locations in that grocery store .One product could spend between 10,000 to 100,000 up to a million dollars to get just one product on a certain shelf right in front of your eyeballs.
there's actually a name for it, it's called The Golden Zone. Products placed in the golden zone can sell eight times more than if they're on a different shelf.
But what is exactly this golden zone ?
The "golden zone" in grocery store design refers to the area between 4 and 5 feet above the floor, which corresponds to the average shopper's eye level. Usually grocery stores designers use the average height of the local population as reference point to place the money making shelves accordingly.
This height is where most shoppers' eyes naturally fall, making it the ideal spot for placing high-demand or high-margin products.
The Shelf Design in itself is intentional.Shelves in the golden zone are typically 12 to 18 inches deep. This depth allows for easy access and visibility of products without overwhelming the shopper.
But this golden zone changes according to the aisles. For example, the golden zone for cereal is at around 3 feet from the ground. That’s because the customers in the cereal aisle are actually children.
But the golden zone trick is not the last trick grocery stores use. They also kind of tailor make things to people who are right handed. That’s because 80% of the population is right-handed, and according to multiple research , right-handed people tend to look more on their right side than the left. That’s why most of the products with higher profit margins are placed on the right side of the aisle. more resistant floor textures that slow you down are placed next to products they want to push more. Now once you put way more products in your cart than you intended to, you head out to the checkout line. There you may think you’re safe , however that’s when a lot of money gets made.
Grocery stores have found out that for every second a person has to wait before they get checked out, an impulse purchase increases by .38 %. 16% of total sales made by grocery stores are made in the front area. 87% of those impulse buys are made 3 seconds before a customer gets checked out.
All of this without mentioning the price tactics like the dollar amount point 99 which increases sales by 24 % , the flashy reduction signs,the pumping of fruity smells to enhance the overall experience and the list goes on.
Next time you visit the grocery store, treat it as if you were walking in a casino , grab the stuff from your list and get the hell out.