by Christina Pomoni

Created on: May 28, 2011   Last Updated: June 05, 2011

How many times have you ended up with a bigger grocery bill than you had originally planned? And how often do you catch yourself piling up stuff while waiting at the check stand? If you are a savvy consumer, you probably stick to your grocery list, use grocery coupons and look for membership cards to receive discounts. However, grocery stores use a wide range of techniques to entice you into last minute purchases and getting you spending more.

The following are the most common ways grocery stores trick you into spending more.

1. Shopping cart

Shopping carts are introduced to facilitate shopping in a grocery store, particularly in large department stores where you are more likely to buy a lot of items. However, as shopping carts are huge, you get the false impression that they are empty if they are not filled to what seems “an acceptable level.” This illusion may prompt you to buy more items only to fill the shopping cart and you end up spending more money mostly for psychological rather than for practical reasons.

Moreover, shopping carts are often used as a convenient place to keep small children. Instead of having your kids running around in a large grocery store, you place them in the shopping cart. This means that you spend more time in the department store, but you also spend more money because children reach out to the store shelves and throw in the cart whatever they like. But because the shopping cart is huge, some items may even go unnoticed until you reach the cashiers.

2. Special promotions

Special promotions and sales are synonym to more spending. Often, you get intrigued to buy an item on sale because you feel it is a smart purchase and you save money. However, there are two factors to consider when buying on sales: 1) value for money and 2) quantity.

Before buying an item on sale, consider its real value. How much would it cost you to pay it full price? If the sale price doesn’t really save you money, it’s not worth getting an item on sale. Also, if you keep on buying items on sale, eventually you will spend more money. Think if you really need a product and stop adding items in your shopping cart just because they are on sale.

3. Marked-up items at eye-level

When you do grocery shopping in a hurry, you typically grab the first item that you see. Grocery stores strategically place marked up items at eye-level so that you buy the first available item without noticing that the best deal brands are placed on the top or

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