The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate Summary

In the passage “The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate,” by Marion Nestle, Nestle informs readers about supermarkets all over the country that influence their customer’s choices by the layout of their store and specific ways products are sold. Nestle goes into detail about these tactics and the huge amount of research that has gone into consumer science. She continues by discussing why supermarkets are a market similar to real estate, how companies rent space, and how it all works together to make customers buy more than they intended when they entered the store. Basic grocery staples such as milk, bread and eggs are strategically placed at the back of the store, forcing consumers to walk past, and view, thousands of other items on the way to
These companies pay “slotting fees” for their shelf space. This is the basic real estate principle of location, location, location. One example of prime real estate in a supermarket is the cash register, where shoppers will tend to make impulse buys based on the placement of the product. Unfortunately, these “high-profile” products are very rarely the ones that are nutritionally sound for the consumer as they most often are highly processed, high calorie foods. Nestle states that “this unsavory system puts retail food stores in firm control of the marketplace.” The store, not the consumer, is actually making the decisions about what products are being bought. Due to the unsavory nature of this consumer manipulation, congress investigated the issue in 1999 but the case made little progress because of the food industry’s refusal to corporate. There are many other factors that contribute to this consumer manipulation, including sizing of items, stimulation of the five senses, music choices of the supermarket, free samples that are offered, and the distractions they provide for children. Supermarkets want their consumer to make decisions based on impulse and stray from their original shopping list. Ultimately, the supermarkets are benefitting greatly, while shoppers are being manipulated in ways that do not benefit