As of: February 15, 2024, 8:21 a.m
By: Michaela Ebert
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They are actually intended to make supermarket shopping easier for customers - but their specific shape, size and handles quickly tempt people to buy in bulk.
The nastiest secret functions of shopping carts at a glance.
For many people, the shopping cart is one thing above all else: a means to an end.
Supermarket customers doing their weekly shopping can rarely avoid using the metal trolleys provided.
Even with alternatives, things are looking rather bad: many discount stores do not offer portable baskets - using empty boxes as a shopping aid is not welcome in every supermarket.
But it is precisely this monopoly position of classic shopping carts that supermarkets and discounters such as Kaufland, Lidl and Co. take advantage of - and use nasty psychological tricks.
The shape, design and handling of the carts alone are intended to encourage customers to reach for the shelf more often.
echo24.de
summarizes which nasty secret functions make the shopping cart a top seller.
Supermarkets' psychological tricks: shopping carts instead of baskets - that's why size is crucial
Perhaps one or two supermarket customers have already noticed: In the parking lot of many supermarkets, shopping carts can be chosen in two sizes.
For retailers, the general rule is: the bigger, the better.
After all, the contents of the car seem pretty lost in the larger version.
Customers who are planning a weekly shop could quickly think that they don't have enough.
By the way, it is no coincidence that some retailers such as Lidl do not offer baskets or trolleys.
After all, fewer goods can be stored in them than in the smaller versions of the shopping carts.
Nasty secret function on the shopping cart: Certain design influences purchasing behavior
The design also makes a crucial difference in the purchasing behavior of many supermarket customers.
Many shopping carts are therefore designed with a sloping bottom.
The surface usually slopes backwards towards the pushing customer.
The purpose of this is to ensure that the contents of the car slip out of the customer's direct field of vision more quickly.
Here, too, there is a psychological reason: customers are supposed to think that there are fewer products in the cart and therefore reach for the shelf more often.
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Handle on the shopping cart manipulates customers: How they are steered towards bulk shopping
For many supermarket customers, such as those at Kaufland, this is also made easier by a certain attachment: the handles used there are mounted parallel and vertically, and not just for ergonomic reasons.
The shape of the handles engages the muscles in a specific way that has a positive psychological effect on customers' shopping behavior.
Nasty trick on the shopping cart: How the handles influence shopping behavior.
© IMAGO / Collage echo24.de
In other words: Customers who push a shopping cart with a horizontal crossbar predominantly use the triceps - and, according to researchers, therefore adopt a rejection posture.
However, the ergonomic handles prevent this - customers are quicker to reach into the shelf.
Other practical secret functions on the shopping cart: Only a few customers know about them
But not all components on the shopping cart are intended to entice customers to make bulk purchases; some are simply functional in nature - such as the practical plastic corners inside and outside, for example.
Here too,
echo24.de
has already exposed the most common secret functions of shopping carts and summarized them in an overview.