You can really fit a lot of groceries in this one. Then you can drive it home.

You know your grocery store is indulging in multiple tricks, nudges and persuasion to get you to spend more. We’re all educated consumers, and we’re much harder to fool with that whole Oreos on the end-of-the-aisle display, store brands in the middle thing than we once were. But some of the manipulation plays out beneath the radar: who knew the pattern on the carpet was set up to lead you deeper into the store?

Women’s Day magazine has an article on “avoiding shopping scams,” and while I wouldn’t call putting the milk or diapers at the back of the store to make sure you have to walk all the way through to get what you need (perhaps the oldest trick in the book) a “scam,” I do think it pays to remind yourself that the last thing the store wants you to do is to buy only the thing on your list. And maybe tune into the pattern on the carpet.
For my five favorite in-store tactics to get you to linger longer and open your wallet wider, I’m afraid you’ll have to click over to Strollerderby.