by Amber Benge

Created on: November 04, 2008   Last Updated: November 13, 2008

Retail stores have dozens of gimmicks to lure you into spending money on unplanned purchases. These marketing schemes can trip up even the smartest shopper from time to time. If you want to save money, you will need to know how to avoid the marketing pitfalls that await you on every trip to the store. Watch out for these gimmicks to know when a deal is not really a deal.

1. Loss Leaders

Loss leaders are the items that you find marked down dirt cheap in weekly store circulars. These outrageous sales are actually costing the supermarket money in the long run. If those buy one, get one free sales seem too good to be true, they probably are. But the store will do it anyway, just to get you through the door.

These special offers are basically bait to reel you down the aisles. For every loss leader advertised, there are dozens of markups to make up for it. You have to carefully navigate prices when these special sales are offered or you won't save any money at all. The solution is to buy only the item that is on sale. Combine your coupons with the advertised sale.

2. Product Placement

Have you ever noticed that those expensive cereals with kid-tempting boxes are located lower than adult eye-level? Stores place these cereals right where your kids will see them. They know that most parents will shell out a few extra bucks for cereal to avoid a tantrum in the grocery store.

This idea applies all over the store. The higher priced items are placed at eye-level. This way you will see these items first and pick them up, without searching the high and low shelves for a better deal. Most generic brands are placed up high or down low. The concept is out of sight, out of mind, and out of pocket book.

Stores also place expensive products in the front. Most supermarkets have bakeries, delis, and produce located at the front of the store. Eggs, Butter, and less expensive necessities are located at the back. This is a purposeful trick to get you to walk past the more expensive items before you find what you are looking for.

While you are on your way to the back of the store, you will pass big displays and sale signs on little tables, advertising tempting products like doughnuts, muffins, or snack foods. Most of the time, these items appear on sale, but the sale price is actually a sneaky mark up that grabs more money from your pocketbook.

3. Impulse Buys

Impulse buys may be located all over the store, in seemingly random order. You might see little toys hanging on the bread aisle to tempt

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