A consumer psychologist has explained how supermarkets use baskets and trolleys to trick shoppers into buy more items. Promotional signs and discount labels are some of the more obvious ways of enticing you to buy something you might not have had on your shopping list.
But supermarkets use more subtle psychological tricks, too - like pumping out fake scents they pump out in the bakery section or arranging items on the shelves in a certain way. There is also a little-known method involving the strategic placement of baskets and trolley around the stores, which you may not have even noticed.
Dr Cathrine Jansson-Boyd from Anglia Ruskin University told The Mirror: "People used to find that if they put too much in a basket that you hold they got too heavy and that was a sign they should stop shopping, as they couldn't carry it. That's why you often see the baskets on wheels these days."
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However, the wheelie baskets are actually much bigger than the ones you carry, which can lead to buying more than you realise. Dr. Jansson-Boyd continued: "They can almost hold the same amount as a small trolley, but because it's a basket, you have the perception that you're buying less.
"So when you're trying to save money, using one of these baskets is not necessarily a good thing to do, because you do tend to fill them up." With this in mind, supermarkets may strategically place bigger trolleys near the entrance to encourage you to use them instead, according to the expert.
She said: "You often find that the smaller shopping trolleys are placed on the opposite side to the shop entrance and the bigger trolleys are on the entrance side. If you want the smaller one you have to walk all the way round to get it, so it's usually just easier to grab the bigger one when you walk through as it's near the door."
Dr Jansson-Boyd added supermarkets will also stack the smaller baskets at the end of the tills and place the bigger baskets near the doorway in a similar trick. "It looks like people have dropped the baskets by the tills while shopping, but often that's not the case, they put them there because it means it will be easy to grab the bigger basket on wheels as you come in than go all the way up to the tills to get the smaller one."
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