You need some bread and milk. But half an hour later, you leave the supermarket with a trolley(手推车) full of food. What games do supermarkets play to make us spend too much money?

   The tricks(诡计、花招) usually start before you walk in. Outside the supermarket door, anybody who walks past can smell warm, fresh bread. That makes us hungry and ready to buy lots of food, not just bread.

   Now you’re inside and, of course, a small basket would be fine, but in some supermarkets all they have are trolleys. And of course the problem with a trolley is that it looks sad and lonely with just one or two products inside. So we may fill it with something. In fact, supermarket trolleys are actually getting bigger so that we buy more.

   Of course, many people shop in supermarkets because they think everything is cheaper than in other shops. So supermarkets offer very cheap prices on some things but then have higher prices for other products. One new trick is to put red stickers on products. Customers usually connect red stickers with lower prices so the red stickers are easy to be noticed, even when there is no reduction! Interestingly, this trick appears to work more with men than with women.

There is a story behind the position of everything in the supermarket. For example, customers often go only to buy milk. So they put it right at the back, forcing you to go past hundreds of shelves full of other products. The position of products on each shelf is also important. The most expensive products are usually at eye-level so you see these at once. The exception is anything that children might like. These products are on the shelves so that kids can see and even reach them.

Except what you see and smell in a supermarket, how about what you listen to? In most supermarkets they have soft, slow music. It’s so relaxing that you slow down and spend more time (and money) in the store. You also move more slowly when the supermarket is busy. Experts suggest it’s better to shop when it’s quieter, on a Monday or a Tuesday for example. And be careful at the checkouts when you pay for the things you buy. These are sometimes on purpose, to make you buy something from the checkout shelves while you wait for your turn.

So, next time you go into your local supermarket, remember these tricks and see if you can come with just the things you want.

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