[2003-12-23] SUPERMARKETS -- SUPER MARKETING by Pam North Have you ever had the thought, as you searched through a store display of soups, how much easier it would be to find your favorites if all the varieties were arranged alphabetically? It won't happen. Statistics have shown that soup sales drop 6% if varieties are shelved alphabetically. Cereals are stocked by types (flakes, brans) rather than by brands, resulting in 5% higher sales, and also making it less convenient to comparison shop. Those deceptively haphazard arrangements are just a small part of a carefully orchestrated overall marketing plan that is designed to make certain that shoppers leave with the maximum number of bulging bags of groceries. Strategy has evolved considerably from the old basic plan of placing the milk at one end of the store and the bread at the other end, forcing the customer to trek the distance between, possibly adding items to the shopping cart along the way. Today's store layouts are the result of years of intense and careful studies regarding shopper psychology, display attractiveness, customer movements through stores, and the effects of color, lighting and music on purchasing habits. Every inch of shelving space is scientifically calibrated to hold only what can be sold at the highest profit margin, and professional designers integrate the 30,000 products typically displayed into a cohesive, well-planned layout oriented solely toward capturing that profit. Supermarket designers know the American consumer well, and have compiled the statistics to prove it. Female shoppers predominate, although male customers are on the rise, and visits to the grocery store are made on an average of 2.2 times per week. A mere 31% of shoppers arrive with lists, but planning accounts for only a third of their final purchases. If samples of products are served, the majority of shoppers will purchase the product. On any given visit, shoppers spend an average of 35 to 40 minutes in a supermarket, and for each additional minute beyond, the shopper spends about $2 more. If the background music is slowed from 108 beats per minute to 80, the average cart speed slows as well, and purchases increase by as much as 38%. The average eye height of women is 59 inches and a man's is 64 inches, and the usual viewing distance is about 4 feet away, so with the best viewing angle being 15 degrees below the horizontal, the choicest elevations on any aisle are 51 to 53 inches off the floor. Products that are more profitable for the grocer are placed in these better viewing spots, so usually that which is most conveniently positioned is not the best buy. Those UPC bar codes that are scanned by a laser beam at the checkout counter have had a major impact on the grocery industry. Not only does it make the checkout process faster and easier, it also gives the retailer a software program that reveals what products customers are buying and at what price, allowing store managers to create a landscape that wrenches the most purchases from customers. Data collection will become even more sophisticated in the future, with shopping carts that will feature a computerized screen to alert shoppers to special deals and new products, and in the process it will electronically generate a map that shows each cart's journey through the store and exactly where purchases were made. It all translates into the reality that while those coupon-wielding shoppers gloat about all the money they save, unless they don't allow themselves to be tempted by anything else they probably spend more than they plan..