Buying Groceries? Placement is King

Some time back I wrote a post about grocery shopping in which I said:

• Grocery shelves are not arranged for your convenience. When I first started shopping for a family, rather than for one, I also noticed how often grocery shopping took me on inconvenient routes. I also notice this when I shop at an unfamiliar store. The stuff is not necessarily logically arranged.I recall one grocery shopping trip that nearly drove me crazy. My list said “popcorn” and the price. It was a buy one-get one, and it was a good deal. I searched the store. I found various much more expensive options. In fact, I found popcorn in four different places in the store. Some were on sale, but the wrong type. Finally, in the section for “healthy” snacks, I found the desired item. There was no reason for it to be in that section. It was just very unlikely that someone would find it there. I considered buying some other type of popcorn, but it was so much more expensive than what I was looking for that I persevered.

Well, it turns out there are statistics for that (Quartz). In 2010 70% of the marketing budget for major food manufacturers was paid in trade promotion fees, which large means placement on the supermarkets’ shelves (HT: Significant Digits).

So looking carefully and price comparison are the grocery shopper’s friends!