Identifying Shop Tricks

How do supermarkets try and make us spend more money?

Supermarkets are just big machines to make us spend more money than we intended. They have enticing smells of new cooked bread; they're very warm, they're very smiley, they make you feel good. Never shop when you're hungry. Supermarkets know this, and you can add up to £30 per trolley in snacks - the sort of things you buy that you can eat on the way home. Then you can eat in the supermarket cafe as well, which adds even more to your spend. Look at the end of the shelves and walk straight past the treats there. That's one way that supermarkets have of getting you to spend a lot of money: the most expensive stuff is always at the end of every aisle.

How do supermarkets lure us in to start with?

Supermarkets lure us in with shopping tricks such as the promise of free parking and lots of special offers. We always tell ourselves that we are going to save money if we set foot in that supermarket because we have been lured in, but the absolute opposite is the case. Very few people can walk out of a supermarket and feel that they have really saved and bought nothing that they didn't intend to buy when they walked in.

Where are the best bargains located in the supermarkets?

You have to look high and low for bargains. I don't mean scour the supermarket, I mean look high and low on the shelf for bargains. The middle of the shelf is where you'll find the most expensive things. Makers can pay supermarkets sometimes to place high-value items right in your eye-line?