Having never been a huge fan of people watching (probably because I’m not a fan of getting watched myself) it took me sometime to pluck up the courage to go on a “pretend shop” to trusty Lowes grocery store. Once I did however, I realized I didn’t really know what I was looking for, both in terms of how to observe others shopping but also, and perhaps more importantly, what I was going to buy so I didn’t look overly creepy wondering the store with nothing in my cart!
I can honestly say I had butterflies in my stomach as I collected my green trolley (that’s the English version of a cart for those of you wondering) and began to peruse the familiar aisles of Lowes in search of some inspiration. I had the idea of trying to observe some kind of consumer insight down the cereal aisle, as it never fails to amaze me the choice and extravagant packaging these products use. But apparently 8pm on a Thursday is a quiet time in the world of cereal purchases, as when I got to the lane there were no shoppers in sight! So I continued on my journey…
I spotted a pretty heavy duty shopper just ahead of me, and by this I mean she had a trolley full of items, so I decided she would be my first target. I weaved my way past display stands of bagels and observed the shopper as she approached the cheeses. The lady, a white forty-something year old reached her arm out, grabbed two bags of shredded mild cheddar cheese and placed them in her cart (I was amazed she could even find room for them.) I continued to follow (from a safe distance) as the lady went about her evening shopping routine, placing a frozen pizza, bag of peas and pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream on top of the cheese she had collected earlier.
With this observation and several other similar encounters fresh in my mind I began to analyze what I had witnessed. I firstly wondered who these shoppers were purchasing items for. Most of my observations were of women, middle aged who seemed to buy a relatively large amount of food. All signs pointed towards them being mothers and wives who were making weekly grocery shop runs to stock up for the weekend perhaps. Although that may be interesting to some, I figured there had to be more I could come up with – and then it hit me.
Every single item removed from the shelves by the shoppers I watched, barring one bottle of wine, was taken from almost exactly eye level. Looking back on my observations, it was like watching a well oiled robot, making the same repeat arm movements out to shelves at shoulder level and back to the trolley, over and over again. I knew being at eye level was the preference for all brands, and it costs a premium to be placed there but now I understand exactly why. Shopping is often thought of as a unique experience, no two baskets are identical, and this might be true. But one striking similarity we all abide by is our natural tendency to browse shelves and make purchases from eye level only. Hundreds of studies have been performed on the exact eye movements of shoppers and the increased purchase likelihood of a product being eye level versus virtually anywhere else. Yet, even with all of this knowledge it is still quite amazing to actually go and observe shoppers following the same pattern.
In closing, I now compare watching this “shopper’s eye” to watching the crowd during a tennis match. Although we all know tennis fans sitting at the side of the court follow the ball across the net, turning their head from side to side to do so, but it’s not until you really sit and watch a crowd doing this do you realize how funny it looks and how in sync all of these people really are. So I challenge you budding marketers to watch several people next time you shop, and try not to let out a little chuckle as time after time you see people grabbing at the same shelf space.
Iain Atkinson is a Senior BEM Major with a concentration in Marketing
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