IELTSwithJurabek

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

The Science of Shopping

A You may have wondered why so many supermarkets are virtually indistinguishable from each other. It is not, as some might suspect, that the companies operating them lack imagination. It is more that they are all well-versed in the science of persuading people to buy things - a science that, thanks to technological advances, is beginning to understand what motivates consumers when they make decisions on what to purchase.

B It takes a while for the mind to get into a shopping mode. People need to make a gentle start and take stock of the surroundings. This is why some supermarkets have a so-called chill zone for browsing magazines, books and DVDs, an area which is also designed to catch the customer's eye and tempt them to make impulsive purchases. But many will ignore it, in which case the first thing they encounter is the fresh fruit and vegetables section. For shoppers, this makes no sense. Fruit in particular can be easily bruised, so ideally should be bought at the end, not the beginning, of a shopping trip. But psychology is at work here: selecting wholesome fresh food is an uplifting way to start shopping, and it makes people feel less guilty about reaching for the less nutritious stuff later on.

C Shoppers have worked out that everyday items, like milk, will invariably be placed in an aisle towards the back of a store to provide more opportunity to tempt customers on their way there. This is also why pharmacies are generally at the rear, even in convenience stores. But supermarkets know shoppers know this, so they use other tricks, like placing popular items halfway along a section, thereby forcing people to walk along the aisle looking for them. The idea is to boost the length of time shoppers spend in a store.

D Having walked to the end of the fruit and vegetable aisle, shoppers arrive at counters of prepared food, the fishmonger and the butcher. Then there is the in-store bakery, which can be smelt before being seen. Even small supermarkets now use in-store bakeries. Mostly these bake pre-prepared items, and they have boomed, although central bakeries that deliver to many stores are more efficient. The smell of freshly baked bread can make people hungry, encouraging them to buy not just bread but other food.

E There are also numerous ways stores get shoppers to choose particular products. For example, stores encourage customers to buy expensive branded products by arranging them at eye-level, with cheaper ones lower down. Often head offices specify where everything has to be placed and spot-checks are carried out to make sure instructions are followed to the letter. But shelf-positioning is extremely controversial. Despite all the academic papers written on how best to stack shelves, retailers have their own views. While many stores consider eye-level to be the top spot, others think a little higher is better.

F Technology is making the process of monitoring shopper behaviour easier, which is why the security cameras in stores may be doing considerably more than watching out for theft. Pictures showing shoppers while they are making their selections can now be analysed. It is possible to see how many shoppers went straight to one brand, the number that hesitated, and those that compared several brands. However, despite the availability of sophisticated technology, researchers have found that simply talking to consumers as they exit the store can yield valuable insights. This low-tech approach has become widespread following comments from stores that data collected electronically tells them little about why so many customers leave without making a purchase. Face-to-face interviews reveal that customers leave shops empty-handed more often because they are unable to decide than because prices are too high.

G People tell market researchers that they make decisions about what to buy based on logic and common sense, considering issues such as price, quality or convenience. But there are clearly other factors which play a role, such as certain feelings and memories which individuals are not fully aware of. Researchers hired by big stores are now conducting studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging, which detects changes in the brain corresponding to increases or decreases in mental activity. Research participants are shown different products and asked questions about them, while scanners reveal their brain activity as they respond. Often, major contradictions are apparent between what they say and what they are thinking. This is immensely valuable information. Eight out of ten new consumer products launched on the market do not succeed, despite having been tested on people who insist they would buy them but who, deep down, may have reservations about the desirability of these products.

H This shopping science probably has its limits, however. Dr Eric Spangenberg of the University of Washington argues that while it's unlikely that someone could be persuaded to buy something they don't need, they might be convinced to choose one brand in preference to another without being aware that this is happening. This claim is also borne out by numerous research findings. But if consumers were to realise quite how much research is being done into the many psychological factors influencing their choices, they might be much more wary of making purchases in the future.