FOOD NEWS
How Costco's Entrance Is Secretly Designed To Loosen Your Wallet
By Elias Nash
For a first-timer, stepping into Costco gives one pause as the mind struggles to wrap itself around a place where you can seemingly find everything. Costco has a reputation for being friendly to our wallets, but you might rethink that when you look behind the scenes at a Costco store's layout.
Fast Company describes Costco’s layout as "panoramic,” offering customers a clear view of every section as soon as they enter the store. The entrance features prominent displays of televisions, computers, and jewelry, with staple items such as food and toilet paper placed at the back of the store, or the far ends of aisles, forcing customers to pass more expensive items along the way.
This is all done to encourage impulse buying, which is motivated by unconscious perceptions that bulk purchases represent better deals, coupled with the fear of missing out on a good bargain. It's all very clever, but a key part of all these techniques is the idea that customers won't catch on to what Costco is doing.