Supermarkets are intentionally designed to shape consumer behavior through a wide range of factors such as lighting, aisle width, store size, heating, and crowdedness. Around two out of every three supermarket purchases are unplanned, and supermarkets hope to maximize these sales by placing consumers in a relaxed state predisposed to consumption. 

Atmospheric Factors

The physical location of products in a supermarket can be a powerful tool to manipulate consumers. Staples such as milk, bread, and eggs are often placed at opposite ends of a supermarket to force consumers to spend more time in the store. Children's brands tend to be located on the bottom shelf, with the hope that children will ask their parents to purchase those products themselves. The most expensive items are usually located at eye level, and the entire layout of a supermarket will likely be arranged multiple times a year to force even experienced customers to browse through the store's selection to find what they are looking for.

Product Placement

Supermarkets often price staples like milk and eggs very competitively, counting on consumers to use those prices as a benchmark for judging the prices of the supermarket as a whole. On the manufacturer side, companies will respond to increasing costs by increasing prices or even decreasing the quantity or quality of their goods by amounts small enough to escape the notice of most consumers. Supermarkets also use "discounts" to make it seem like items are much greater of a bargain than they actually are. 

Price Manipulation

- Atmospheric Factors
- Product Placement
- Price Manipulation

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

- Psychological Pricing
- High Octane Fuel
- Supermarkets
- Pharmaceutical Advertising

Examples of Market Manipulation

Hanson, Jon D. and Kysar, Douglas A., Taking Behavioralism Seriously: The Problem of Market Manipulation (1999). New York University Law Review, Vol. 74, p. 632, 1999, Harvard Public Law Working Paper No. 08-54, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1288182

Taking Behavioralism Seriously: Some
Evidence of the Problem of Market
Manipulation

A pricing strategy based on the theory that consumers perceive just-below prices (prices that are slightly below a round number, such as $19.99) as being lower than they actually are. 

Psychological Pricing

Oil company advertising has led many consumers to conclude that such premium fuel
will make their car start more easily, get better mileage, and last longer. Oil industry officials acknowledge, however, that only vehicles with high-performance engines (less than ten percent of the market) actually benefit from high-octane fuel. The Federal Trade Commission has been challenging this practice for some time, but consumers still continue to purchase high-octane fuel at levels far above what is beneficial for most vehicles.

High Octane Fuel

Supermarkets

- Solicitation of physicians
- Direct-to-consumer marketing

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