Did you know that it is assumed that when we walk into a supermarket the psychology of shopping takes over and our brains leave the building? You knew that, right? Well, that is what the designers of supermarkets want us to believe.
If we are to believe the psychologists who study supermarket designs, we humans are a pretty gullible lot, incapable of making decisions on our own and incapable of resisting shopping cues designed to make us do something that we would not ordinarily do on our own. It is as if we become puppets on a string or rodents in a laboratory.....according to those who study supermarket psychology.
According to these experts, supermarkets are designed to send us on a walk-a-bout through the store on a calculated counter-clockwise path because we humans are largely right-handed and we grab with our right arms and hands. Produce is displayed with the concept that if it appears to be in cardboard-type boxes, we might be fooled into thinking it just came out of the field and off from Farmer Fred's Fresh Produce truck. Even the color of lighting and plastic comes into play as our eyes try to fool our brains into thinking that certain colors reflect a higher level of freshness - which is aided by color imbued into the plastic bag or container or directly onto the produce via the aid of coloration in the lighting.
I am appalled at how easy it seemingly is to manipulate the average shopper, such as myself. Truly, these supermarket psychologists should cease their urges to impart knowledge to the world, because in doing so they simply make us smarter and harder to fool when shopping. Just think how food retailers' profits might plunge if all of us starting shopping in a clockwise pattern throughout the store OR if we began selecting brands that were higher or lower than eye-level OR if we picked items off shelves with our left hands instead of the predominant tendency to do so with our right paws.
I propose that we shoppers upend the food retail business and stop being so predictable. The next time I shop I shall begin in the middle of the store, use my left hand, find brands that are higher than my left arm can comfortably reach, buy green bananas and ignore all the produce in cardboard boxes. I will be a one-person "counter-shopper" by changing their rules of shopping to my rules.
But, we still all have to obey the rules of the road with our shopping carts. This cardinal rule of supermarket shopping shall not change, regardless of the hand I use with which to make my selections.
Ancountercora imparo
