Super Market Secrets

It may not seem like it when you're shopping, but supermarkets put a lot of thought into how products are organized on their shelf's. Their goal is of course to make you spend more money.

What's in store for you. The produce is over here, the dairy's over there. The soft drink specials are at the end of the aisles, the candy's at the check out counter always. A visit to your local supermarket is not as haphazard as it seems. It's been laid out so that you spend as much as possible on what the store wants you to buy. And that's often more than you came in for. Here's how a supermarket is designed to maximize sales.

Why are the meat, poultry, and seafood displays almost always along the back of the supermarket. Its so that you will see them every time you emerge from the end of an aisle. Not a bad place to put the most profitable sections of the Supermarket.

Have you ever wondered why the dairy products are as far away from the entrance to the supermarket as possible. It's because most everyone buys milk when they shop. And to reach it you've got to walk thru a good chunk of the supermarket to get there. And that's exactly what the supermarket wants you to do. Notice how they put that donut and pastry case right beside of or in front of the milk. They are hoping you will pick up that box of donuts or honey buns. In fact they count on it to get a little more money in the stores cash registers.

The more time you spend shopping shopping along the sides and back of the supermarket the more money the store makes. About half of a supermarkets profits come from perimeter items like fruits , veggies , milk , cheese , meat , poultry and seafood.

Also stores like to anchor a display by putting popular items at each end. That's why milk, for example, is often at one end of the dairy case and margarine and butter are at the other end. You've got to run the gauntlet f cheese , yogurt , chips etc to get to what you want.

Some foods are so profitable that they command their own aisles. Breakfast cereals bring in more dollars per foot of shelf space than any other products in the supermarket. So most supermarkets give cereals plenty of room. Soft drinks aren't so profitable at least on paper. But beverage manufacturers sweeten the pot with so much free merchandise and cash rebates that soft drinks end up being one of the biggest money makers in most supermarkets.

Productive Produce Think it's a coincidence that you almost always have to walk thru the produce department when you enter the supermarket. The look of those shiny, neatly stacked fruits and vegetables is the most important influence on where people decide to shop. It also doesn't hurt that the produce section is the second most profitable section in a supermarket.

The Scan Scam Check out scanning errors may be beeping shoppers in the USA out of 2 billion dollars a year. Last year researchers in California found that close to 2 out of every 10 people going thru the check out line are over charged by having some items rung up more than once. So just imagine how bad the problem is nation wide.

What Should You Do To Make Sure You Are Not Scammed

1. Watch the scanner display to make sure what it says as far as price and how many of the item are rung up.

2. Make sure if there is a price in front of a high ticket item in the supermarket that the correct price shows up when the item is scanned.

3. When you get home check your receipt against your purchases. You would not believe how often I have got home to find mistakes on my supermarket receipt. If you find enough mistakes go back to the store and complain.

Many many peoples supermarket total is wrong and most times it is wrong in the supermarkets favor. Always stand there and watch what is rung up. If you spot something wrong don't be afraid to call the cashiers attention to it.