How Video Games Use Supermarket Psychology - Extra Credits 

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A similar principle is behind why a lot of social media or streaming site redesigns are so annoying, because they’re actively trying to make it harder for you to find exactly what you came for in the hopes that by spending time looking you’ll find something that catches your eye that you weren’t looking for to get more engagement.

with Supermarket's one way to help mitigate Impulse buying is using a shopping list. its not fool proof but it helps. probably wont work so well on Video game stores though.

I have actually participated in a supermarket psychology study myself! I suspect the little thank-you gift I could pick out at the end as compensation for my time was the thing they were actually focused on for the study, in hindsight.

Having worked in a grocery store I picked up on this while stocking, and hated the manipulation immediately.

Any time i feel manipulated i get frustrated with it, I've got demand avoidance. Even things like a button saying "buy now" annoys me because I feel like they're trying to work that in to get you to be more impulsive. Sometimes I'll just leave a shop or online store because of it. I know they make way more money off other people for it that it won't be a "vote with your cash" thing but I still hate it.

I think the biggest difference between the layout you described and supermarkets in my country is that you'd be doing something pretty weird if you're in one for over 20 minutes.

I learned this years ago, and ended up changing my habits: Buy more often, but buy less, never take a cart and just carry things you buy in your hands, or a single bag. Can't carry anymore? Buy it next time (or not at all). For large shopping runs, order online, where none of these tricks work on you (though there are others, it's not as bad).

It’s called predatory marketing. And you can blame it for why video games are now run by commercial moguls who crunch programmers to the bone, then fire the entire department, instead of say programmers anymore.

Denmark made it illegal for some supermarkets to place the candy aisle by the cash registers because of this.

My shopping trips for groceries take under 20 minutes... I go in with a list, only go to the aisles carrying those things, and head out. Sometimes, though, I wander just to see what's new/available, but don't pick-up anything else. Keeps it simple and keeps the psychological manipulation to a minimum. Also, ignore all the purchase option in free-to-play games, and generally avoid all the pay-to-play manipulation by dropping the game after the shine wares off and the limitations of the "free" aspect is apparent. Don't bother even installing apps that are "free" but with "in app purchases" as they are mostly rip-offs.

I’ve rarely gone into a store and come out with something I didn’t plan on. I’ve always been confused about the fact other people feel compelled to buy stuff they didn’t plan on.

Im really happy this drawimg style is still on this channel

My local grocery store does none of these things. The first things in the entrance are produce, then bread, meat and dairy. Heck, it even feeds the line through an aisle filled with personal care items(Soap and lotion), instead of snack foods.

My secondary school had Business Studies as a mandatory subject, and we learnt all about this stuff, plus loss leaders. I'm kinda glad I've kinda trained myself out of the cycle tho. If I go into a new to me supermarket I kinda form a mental map of where everything is (so when they reorganise I get irrationally angry), and then on subsequent visits I just have a list and beeline my way to each thing I need and get out asap - cuz otherwise I get big overwhelmed. At this point the sweets at the tills and the promotion shelves are about as invisible to me as online adverts - another intrusive thing that I just turn my brain off and ignore when I encounter (Also I know I'm not immune to these psychological tricks, but just knowing that they exist and what they're designed to do is half the battle)

At home I like to play a game with my kids after going to the supermarket called "was it on the list" always gets a few chuckles

Another reason to keep your shopping list. Keeps you focused.

Whenever something like that "decision fatigue" happens to me, I just storm out. Open-world games are extremely guilty of that.

Fantaaastic The Clash reference, one of my fav songs of all time.

in my country(denmark) we have a store called "normal" it does this to the most obvious degree because it makes a kind of line like this 2:04 but it shuts of the other routes with more places to store products so the only free space is where the red arrows is and thereby you have to take that route to get to the exit which then makes you need to look at all the products to reach the end

I’m neurodivergent, and I HATE going to the supermarket. This whole process wears me down way more than it does for many other people. The exhaustion lasts for hours or days. Online grocery orders and meal delivery are the only things that keep me functional. Similarly, it feels like such a breath of fresh air when I play games with easily avoidable microtransactions or none at all. I am here to get my dopamine, not to have decision fatigue that’s so bad that I struggle to eat dinner after playing.

Many large stores that bought way into delivery shopping back during the pandemic have actually started to dial them back, or start charging to motivate people to NOT use them. Particularly with grocery stores the impulse shopping doesn't work when you're basically filling out your shopping list on their app and having someone else do the actual shopping for you. Average transaction amount actually went way down for most grocery stores when more people started ordering online instead of going in. My funny side story the first, and only one of two times now, that we used the grocery delivery service we wanted some bananas but didn't know if the quantity meant bananas or pounds of bananas. Being prices by weight we assumed the order quantity was by weight too. We ordered 2 assuming that to mean 2 lbs of bananas (roughly 8) but instead got just two bananas.

The humming of The Clash in the beginning ::chef kiss::

I had to keep humming the tune 0:01 for a good 10 minutes until I figured out what a deep cut this was…you don’t LOOK lost in a supermarket though

Love that he is humming Lost in the Supermarket by The Clash when the video starts!

Nice use of the Clash's Lost in a Supermarket, in the opening scene.

As a retail worker, I wonder if that "the rational part of your brain has been beaten down" part of shopping is why so many customers have so much trouble with self-checkouts. Especially when we have tons of very obvious signs and indicators that one is Closed/Cash Only/Card Only, and customers seem to ignore all of it and then go "I didn't know it was Card Only!"

A shopping list helps, but the supermarket is designed to make you take the longest amount of to get the most needed items from your list and get you to pass buy as many impulse items as possible. Most people have a list but while walking from the Cereal to the milk (never in the same place) they past by 20 other things and in the moment they feel they "need" those things but "forgot" to put it on the list. A list is a step in the right direction. But what people really need, is a list, a map and a timer. No what you want, now the fastest route to get it, and limit the amount of time you spend in the supermarket. Make a game of getting everything on your list in the shortest amount of time (lose points for any items added not originally on the list).

the supermarket that I go to actually has the bakery, all the meat, produce and dairy on the same side if the store and household items like shampoo, toilet paper, plastic plates etc on the opposite end of the store

My dad’s a construction electrician. They literally plan the placement of aisles to the inch so they can make sure all the products have perfect lighting.

I had a boss once make me read the book on store design and the science behind how it's arranged. While the job itself didn't work out, the core concepts fascinate me. Aaaaand I also notice bad landing zones in every store I walk into now.

Honestly I never considered supermarket design very much while shopping OR while playing the dozens of F2P games I've played over the years. Really helpful video about the intentional design of these games/markets!

It works! Always on the look out for games! Love your videos guys🎉🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤

lost in the supermarket in the beginning was top tier. one of my fave songs

There was a supermarket near me as a kid that stocked the sane soda in 2 similar sizes (i think it was 16 oz and 16.9 oz, but im not sure, it's been a long time) and despite the fact that they were *almost* the same, the ones in the refridgerated end cap next to the checkout were almost 50% more expensive than the similar ones buried in the middle of an aisle.

I know a turtle that is older than super markets? My mind is blown.

One study found that the more choice they gave customers for a product, such as bags of crisps/chips, the fewer they bought because it was too exhausting to consider so many options. That's why stores only have a few varieties as it makes impulse buying more likely.

I feel like extra credits is slowly becoming different from the other "EXTRAS" in a good way

That is why I go shopping with a list. I tell my family that “if isn’t on the list, it doesn’t exist”. Random buying crap is for the birds. I do hate it when the store decides to “change it up”. My lists are written in the order the layout and is ticks me off when they rearrange it

Thank you for the video.

As someone who works in retail, they often move product around (without informing the employees) to keep people guessing.

Every time I go to the supermarket I find myself following pretty much the same route through the store, picking up the same items in the same order, which I suppose is by design. I do enjoy sometimes just wandering the isles to see what's interesting, especially if it's a place I go to rarely. And I almost invariably leave with more items than I planned to pick up, but most of the time it's those non-urgent but nice-to-have sort of things that I spot along the way.

Let us also not forget the "Limited time" Specials. Designed to make you feel you are losing money if you don't buy now. Both grocery stores and games do timed sales, limited stock, and first in the door deals. Especially in games where it is "If you close this screen this awesome one time deal goes away!"

This is why you make a specific list of what you need and just go in, but what you need, and leave.

I find that putting stuff at eye-level makes it _harder_ to find. It's just not where I look by default. My pattern when looking for something I don't normally buy seems to be to start at chest hight and go down, then up to the top, and _end_ at eye-level.

I have a “to buy list” and a “to buy later list”. It works for me.

I am impressed by how sleazy these stores can get.

It is interesting to compare British supermarkets to American supermarkets -there is usually only one entrance/exit to the side of the store instead of two both sides -unusually the floral section is near the entrance/exit of the store, whilst the bakery is the furthest corner away from the entrance/exit -there is usually gossip magazines by the checkout, but sweets/candy are usually located close to the checkout

The store I work at is set up in a different fashion but has the same ideas. The doors are in the middle that lead to the check outstands on the right and the produce bakery and meat departments on the left. And through the center of the store is all the aisles.

Oddly, I have often searched high and low at a supermarket for an item... only to eventually realize it was on an end cap the whole time. I never look at them normally.

While this is fascinating from a monetization point, could this same logic be used in games for game design perspective? Great video though, and art was especially good today :)

Makes me feel glad that I rarely have to go to a supermarket and have only briefly played games with stores in them.

Did I hear you humming “Lost in the Supermarket” by The Clash? Well played. Well played, indeed.

I remember watching a video in school about this exact subject (strictly supermarkets, well before microtransactions were a thing) and it said "Two thirds of people report having impulse bought items. The other third are lying."

Interesting!

So that's why in our 1 door supermarkets chocolate, biscuits (cookies), fizzy pop (soda) and booze are all at the end.... so after brain switches off, you get to stuff the heart "wants"

The idea is to 1) have a list 2) shop in a U (along the sides only) and 3) only hit the aisle that has an item you need. You're usually good if you just stick to the outsides (bread, produce, meat, and dairy).

Funny how your sponsor has you click through a gazillion tabs (and a sign up) before it even tells you the price.

Don’t forget special point of sale displays the bank on you not wanting to track down a product in the aisle and put those high profit items in special “seasonal” displays.

3:52 - this whole part on decision fatigue is WILD to me. Any time I go into a supermarket, decisions are easy, for every item no matter how long I've been in there. "Is this an item I actually intend to buy? Is it on sale? Is it the cheapest item of its type that meets the previous requirements?" If all answers are yes, buy the item. Otherwise, don't buy it. Edit: A little more info now that I think about it. By 'I actually intend to buy,' I mean items that I have used or intend to use in the near future and need to restock. And for 'on sale,' I mean *actual* sales. No, cutting 2 cents off of a 4 dollar item is not a real sale, stupid grocery stores. Generally, I only consider sales good enough if they're 15% at an absolute, bare minimum, for items that rarely ever go on sale. 20-33% (or more) is more what I usually aim for.

I had a deeply entertaining grocery shopping trip around June or July. The most intense smell of watermelon greeted me as I entered the fruits and veg section, only for me to find absolutely no watermelon. 10/10 smell design grocery store, make it real obvious that you use artificial smells. X'D

Come to think of it, many of the supermarkets and big-box stores I've been to lately have had fewer hand baskets available at their entrances, if they haven't phased them out completely. If I'm looking to buy more than I can carry in my hands, I have to get a shopping cart. I suspect that this is another psychological trick to get me to buy more stuff, since a mostly-empty cart can make it seem like I'm buying less than I actually am, making me think less about grabbing an extra item or two.

"decision fatigue" sounds exactly like "mental load", and "burnout". i can understand different fields having different slang for the same thing. but one field having multiple terms for something seems a little like obfuscation

Going to the grocery store tomorrow, watching this to prime myself against being fooled.

In middle-sized finnish stores fruit and veggies and candy are right next to each other at the entrance while the cash registers are right next to both and the veggies are prevalent. In small finnish stores the candy aisle could be barely noticeable. In big ones it seems kinda random, but non-consumables like books, clothes and toys are on one edge and dairy on the other edge of most big finnish supermarkets There are fitting shop sizes for different town sizes, but if it's not big, it's less consumeristic here in Finland for some reason but the thing is that veggies are often at the only entrance in smaller supermarkets and want-not-need products are more pronouncedly present in big supermarkets in big cities. the middle sized shops seem to have different priorities than the big ones and the smallest variety appears to arrange their shelves at almost random except instant meals are near the entrance. I buy stuff based on consideration most of the time, often making the decision after months or even years, because I'm a kid with no income and my upbringing wanting something doesn't mean instantly rushing to obtain it. Stop to think keep the brain active at all times when in a shop if you want to keep your money I wait for sales on steam and nintendo eshop and don't pay in games except with consideration Sometimes I go to irl shops just to look at the wares like in a museum and leave Sometimes it's hard to find snack food that isn't sugar and preservatives in a box or requires heating or boiling simply because there aren't that many products outside those categories if you take a close look by the way fortnite handles microtransactions in a way that lets you get'em cosmetics without paying if you just decide to be stingy. be stingy and consider before buying no matter the environment especially if you have low income or no income or want to vote for an agenda with your cash by avoiding certain product types.

Decision fatigue doesn't work the same for everyone. When I get it, I just give up and don't buy either. Particularly when it comes to durable goods, I might end up buying it online instead. TBH I can't even relate to this supermarket experience at all. Maybe it's because I have personality traits that promote frugality, but I guess this model works on enough people to be worth it.

I take it personally to design my own strategies to de-claw these techniques where I can, sometimes just not participating with some brands at all since avoidance is the easiest

I saw how mobile/gacha games played this sort of trick thanks to videos like this from other channels and as a result I have been very fastidious about not spending more money than I need or want to. I ended up playing Gundam Breaker Mobile before it got shut down and by my estimates, I got so far with a combination of smart freebie grinding and diligently planning my builds, that they *gave* me more than fifty bucks in premium currency by the time they closed it down.

@extracredits can you please do a followup showing us tactics to avoid or cope these things in a healthy way?

My girlfriend and I experience what we call "grocery store hypnosis" or "shopping hypnosis". After we've been in a store for roughly 20 minutes or more, we start to get groggy and forgetful. To my memory this doesn't make us more impulsive with purchases, it just makes us wander more as we forget where things are; and also want to leave. Neither of us are neurotypical, so I wonder if the store layout wearing down our logical processing forces us to think with other parts of our brains that are already over-taxed? It feels like a micro-burnout. For some topical context, both of us hate the feel of Gacha games and most "Freemium" games.

I normally buy the stuff I need to buy only. I am writing the shopping list in a special way. I am drawing a symbol in front of every item to put them into sections. Like a minus (-) for dairy products and cross (x) for vegetables. I go allong the path to every part of tbe store to product I need. From 1 part to the other I am only thinking about the next section. PS: I am also not buying the cookies I like. Because I know that I can't stop eating them at home if I buy them.

I've done remodels and modulars/planograms at plenty of places. I can honestly say that they don't want to make it difficult for you to find stuff. If it's too difficult, you won't bother to go into the store because it's too much of a hassle. It's quite the opposite, they make it EASY so you enjoy your time there so you stay longer and look around more to "see what you need". So the idea that departments or items are far away from each other just isn't how it's done now. They actually want to make it easier. As far as flow and where NameBrand vs Generic is, well there are layers to it. Usually they put the generic right next to the name brand so that you don't have to even try to compare them. The tags are right next to each other. You can look at a glance that the Generic is cheaper without any effort which gives you that dopamine hit which means you enjoy coming back. People love feeling like they got a 'win' or 'outsmarted' the system. They also do things by sizes. Small things on top, large things on the bottom. That's not only to make this easy but also to lower wear and tear on the fixtures so you don't have to replace them as often, keeping costs down. That's why you see the bags of cat/dog food usually on steel instead of the usual gondola. It's all about keeping cost down and making it easy for customers. Much easy to grab that bag from steal than gondolas. They will also have employees closer to the steal racks so you get that sweet customer service. The fact that you got someone to help you 'in your time of need' helps with that dopamine hit. By the time you get to the register, your brain is already saying that you should treat yourself for a job well done, hence the candy. It also helps that families come in with their toddlers and tell them that if they're good, they'll get a treat and BAM! there's a treat right there at the register aka when they are done. That's how they organize things now. So some things are correct in the video but most is wrong. The endcaps are a signpost of deals sometimes. Sometimes it's there for easy access to holiday stuff. Thanksgiving, you will see endcaps full of Thanksgiving ingredients to make it easier and give you that dopamine hit of how smart and forward thinking you are. Halloween, lots of candy so you can run in and run out just in case you run out on the day. That's why they put the gift bags for Valentine's day right in the middle of their main 'action alley'. It's so that it's super easy and you enjoy your time so you come back repeatedly. Just because it's on an endcap, doesn't mean that it's a deal. It can just be "Hey, it's Christmas and we sell a lot of sugar cookie mixes so we're going to order 50 cases so we can fill the endcap and the home so that it's super easy for people to find and show we have plenty so they know to come here instead of literally anywhere else". Literally things that I've been told. Basically, a store now is designed to stop you from thinking entirely and just 'go through the motions' because it's that easy and enjoyable. I hope this helps.

A lot of customers--a statistically significant amount--leave their carts around the lot, even if they count themselves as responbsible adults IRL. And a subset of those that don't---and I sadly counted myself as this until I thought about it--call them LAZY. But they're NOT--they're depleted by the grocery game. Their emotional centers tell them to get moving, and they do.

What it also sounds like is that you have a roughly 20-minute window to grocery shop if you have a plan you want to stick with/to, e.g. a budget or meal idea. Get in, get the things you need, and get out.

Being acutely aware of this, I don't let it effect me while shopping. I know where the products I need are located, and I only go down those aisles, crab the one item I'm specifically looking for, and then move on. In and out in 30 minutes tops.

Unfortunately that Supermarket psychology doesn't work on me. When I enter a store, I know exactly what I'm looking for, and I never buy more than that. The goal might be flexible, like "a week worth of desserts" where I just go straight to the bakery corner and buy what draws my attention the most, but I never end up buying "an extra week worth of food". The only exception is when there's something specific I've been looking for and haven't been able to find for a while. Also, my brain shutting down and giving up on making choices means adding "nothing" rather than "everything". I just head straight to the cashiers, make my payment and get the heck out of there, probably without having purchased my full goal. I can't recall the last time I bought a candy or whatever from the corner around the cashiers.

My brain must be wired differently, I go into supermarkets looking for new and interesting stuff to try or waste money on and after spending hours wandering around I end up leaving almost empty handed with only the items on my shopping list. Similarly when I'm presented with the free stuff that is supposed to entice players to browse the shop in free to play games that's usually what makes me lose interest in the game, and given I only start playing free to play games expecting to spend money it all seems backwards to me driving me away from purchases rather than toward them.

...funny thing is I'm pretty sure that I have actually toned out that decision paralysis at my local Super market. Either that or Winco just doesn't care that much.

"YES WANT. WANT PLEASE THANKS." - smartest man on earth

Another Bojack Horsemen reference, keep them coming!

A fellow enjoyer of excellent Clash songs, I see 👍

The mobile ads in between rounds have the opposite effect on me. I don't want to spend, so no matter how good the deal is, after a few rounds and seeing another ad my brain just impulse nos it and I don't even look at it.

Not sure how I feel about a Muzak version of The Clash.

I don't mind this, I like exploring stores.

It's weird. Maybe because I grew up with supermarkets but not in app purchases I'm way more adverse to the latter. I will straight up uninstall games if they pop up adds for currency. My brain instinctively knows that an add to buy anything in game means that I'm not playing a game. I'm playing in a shop. And I immediately know it's not worth putting any time or effort into it because surely there's a catch eventually.

0:19 Why is the title on the back of the book?

Why are all the old videos gone? Oldest one I'm still seeing is from the beginning of the year.

Hang on, was you humming along to The Clash there? 👍

I've always hated how stores randomly rearrange items to confuse people into buying more. I hate it even more that it works. Recently my local store moved peanut butter and jelly type things out of the bread isle and to basically as far away from it as possible.

Hmmm... I'll only pick up the low calorie Elven Waybread...Oh look at that! An Ultra-Super Vorpal blade for only $99.95! Gotta have it!

The longer I'm in a grocery store, the more likely I am to leave my cart and go somewhere else (easy since there's a clump of 3 of them within walking distance here). I hate it when I can't find what I'm looking for, there's no price label, or the item ends up being in a stupid place. Why are your taco kits in the condiments section, Superstore?

I see. So what you're saying is: I should go out and get some spicy marshmallows.

Well, looks like I luck out with my natural tendencies. Once I hit decision fatigue, my emotions tell me to go home. So I end up buying half the stuff I went there to get. Also, I don't even want to look at the impulse buy things.

I watched on nebula but wanted to give you interactions on here too.

Must be different in the UK as even in large stores all the snack stuff is near the entrance to speed things up and the fresh food is in the first half. You rarely get forced to do laps. That said, I'm pretty sure they reorder the rows once a year or so to throw customers off so they actually see different products instead of shortcutting. You guys talk about 30 minute shops but I've rarely taken more than 10 mins to shop so not sure what you're on about.

I don't think I am convinced that all of this is as malicious as it seems. Considering the nature of the various parts of a grocery store that are against the walls, they almost always require that employees have access to a kind of "back space" where customers don't go. There's the shelf stocking behind the dairy department. The prep space behind the deli, meat, and bakery counters. It might be that they could put those spaces closer together than they do, but they will still be along the edges and they only have so many of those spaces available. Also, the very basics of good consumer habits when grocery shopping--bring a list, don't shop while hungry--are true whether the grocery store is trying to work against you or not. Even a grocery store that put everything in the most "consumer friendly" layout possible will still have the same problems if you don't plan ahead for what you need.

No doubt moving the products around is another way to keep people there longer. Can't have them getting familiar with where their regular purchases are

Huh...this...actually explains a lot...

Yeah, never was aware of the layout of a market because I don't like to stay inside of them, I already have a list of what to get and leave afterward. That might also be why I have only used real money once in a mobile game, it was a thing I "needed" but I had to use cash to avoid the BS gacha in the game, then never used money again.

Walking to a supermarket, and going through those products I cannot afford... What a skill I have learned by being poor.