It may look ordinary, but shopping is much more than what meets the ordinary eye. There is so much attached to the fanciful arrangements, the positioning of products, and the choice of colors used in retail stores and food outlets. Even the music that blasts through the speakers is a strategy used to make you shop more and spend more on buying things you may not actually need. In this blog post, we’ll be sharing with you 10 Top Psychological Tricks To Spend Less While Shopping.
1. Make a list before you leave home
Make a list of things you really need before you leave your home and go straight to where those things are arranged in the store. This way, you’ll not be tempted to buy those shining stuff arranged to get your attention and money. Remember, you don’t have to buy shining and beautiful items. You only have to buy things you need by making a list of those things before you leave home.
2. Go to a crowded store
In a state of discomfort, you have little desire to look through everything your eyes shouldn’t see. That is how you will feel in a crowded store. Go for it, if you want to spend less money while shopping. When there are dozens of people around you pushing and struggling to get through a particular spot in a store, all that is on your mind is to buy what you need and make your way out from there. The only regret is that you could get all sweaty and starved of fresh air.
3. Demystify the beautiful pictures with your mind
Eateries have a way of hanging oversized pictures of food in rich colors, within sight. They are attractive and instantly create a longing in you to buy them especially if they are new additions to the existing ones. Take no heed to them. Picture them as drawings in a textbook that cannot be helped but admired. A glance is enough and you’ll be safe.
4. Don’t touch items unless you really need them
Store owners know there’s a healthy chance you’re going to buy 50% of items you touch. That is why they place their most profitable items within touching distance from you. Now, they’ve been busted! Unless you need those items, do not touch them. Do not feel them nor ask questions about them. You can selectively try out what is within your budget when you check the price tag. Apart from that, look and keep going as fast as your legs can carry you.
5. Ignore the baskets and shopping carts at the entrance of the store
The baskets are not there to relieve you of loads; they are there to make you buy more and carry more loads. With a basket in hand, you are free to pluck down items from every corner, as though you are in a fruit garden. Both the needed and the catchy products make their way into a shopping cart as you push through from one corner to another. In order to show you are smarter than them, ignore those baskets and shopping carts; march down with your list and arms to carry items specified on your list. The discomfort of having to carry much more than you should carry will discourage you from getting anything extra. When your arms get full and you still have more on the list to purchase, walk down to the counter, empty your arms, and engage in another trip without a carrier. You’ll be thankful you did.
6. Do not shop during the holiday season
If possible, buy gifts for Christmas two months prior. This can save you huge amounts of money as you wouldn’t be caught up with the stress of last-minute shopping for pricey goods. This goes for Easter and Thanksgiving shopping. Buy items you need earlier, and when there’s no rush, to be able to save more.
7. Don’t be fascinated by the arrangement of goods in a store
They purposely arrange their wares in such a way that the most basic, everyday ones are far off while the occasionally used, and profit-making ones are within reach. In a bid to get the basic items behind, your eyes must catch an item amongst the occasional ones which would be admired and bought. Because you are wiser now, just pay less attention to the distractions before you, and head straight for the items that brought you into the store. Your money can’t be tricked out of you.
8. If you can, don’t go into a shop with your toddlers
It’s pretty difficult to resist children’s manipulative requests, isn’t it? Children aged one to three years old are wonderful targets to get you to spend more. Stores will hang items that appeal to children at an eye level so that as you innocently carry them about in your arms to shop, they would see those articles, and disturb you enough to buy them for them. Your pleas would fall on deaf ears, while the store will rejoice for scoring a goal against you.
9. Arrange your money in such a way that you get to pay with old currency notes
Draw your list, calculate the amount, and then get the old and crumpled notes arranged in the front, and if you are fortunate to have the amount match with what you have on your list, take them to the store. This will prevent you from buying much more than you need as it is not easy to bring out a fresh and minty money note to buy stuff when you exhaust the old ones.
10. Smile at the tricky “buy 10 and get one free” coupons
Funny people. They get you to buy more in order to get a free gift, when in the real sense of it, they are out to increase sales. They could also come up with the “free gift inside” tactic to get you to buy an unplanned item to have that freebie you admire. Smile, give them a thumbs up for trying, and waltz away to the essential items borne on your list.
Thank you.