8 Ways Supermarkets Take Advantage Of You

May 04, 2018

You probably enjoy going to the supermarket since it's a familiar place that has all of your favorite foods where you know to find them. This is all a very carefully orchestrated environment designed to make you spend all of your money. Every company uses tricks, but here are 8 dark secrets supermarkets don't want you to know.

National Geographic has exposed that supermarkets pay big bucks to conduct studies on the psychology of consumers. Most stores are very well lit and keep their produce sections near the entrance so that you can feel more justified buying junk food later.

You know the shelves that face outward at the end of aisles? Stores utilize these shelves as a way to tempt you to make an impulse buy. Items featured on these end caps raise sales 33%! Every step you take has been carefully mapped out to make you spend the maximum amount of money.

We should all be furious with the FDA, since stores are not legally required to disclose expiration dates. This could mean that stores change labels to prolong shelf life or they remove them completely. The only time stores have to remove food from the shelves is when they think it could potentially dangerous to consume.

Say what? According to ABC7 in Denver, butchers may be using a "meat glue" called transglutaminase to make smaller chunks of meat look bigger and more impressive to shoppers. Don't get tricked into buying a fancy cut of meat that is actually made out of small cuts of low-quality meat.

Most produce doesn't have to be frequently watered. The mist you see in supermarkets is a marketing ploy to trick you into thinking your fruits and vegetables are fresh. Your produce could actually be half a year old by the time you buy it, thanks to modern storage methods. This sounds scary, but it is safe to consume. If you're concerned about eating fresh food, shop locally at a farmers market.

Supermarkets can't sell chicken labelled as pork, but apparently fish is an umbrella term that means stores can get away with selling one fish labeled as another. Oceana, a conservation group, recently exposed the industry with some startling figures. With an experiment that tested over 25,000 samples of fish, 30% of them were mislabeled and 58% of them were dangerous for people with certain allergies.

If a store fails a health inspection, it can still stay open. Two separate news stations in two different states (CBS 42and Fox 29) have reported stores failing health inspections but still conducting business as usual.

The bigger your grocery cart, the more likely you'll feel the need to fill it, which means spending less money. So simple, but so effective.


Were you aware of any of these secrets? Be sure to educate all of your friends and family!