If you’re like most folks, unusual foods you normally don’t buy but decided to try on a whim—like canned smoked oysters, pistachio nut butter, chili sauce and watermelon salsa—are gathering dust in your cupboards and fridge, leaving you wondering “What was I thinking?”. Unfortunately, all that uneaten food translates into hundreds of dollars of wasted groceries every year. Now a study in the Journal of Consumer Research reveals when we’re most likely to put those odd items in our carts: when the supermarket is busiest! Turns out, shopping in cramped, tight stores—for instance, when there are crowds or narrow aisles—makes us uncomfortable by restricting our freedom to move. And our automatic reaction is to get a feeling of freedom back another way—in this case, by straying from our usual favorites and exercising our freedom to put new and unsual items in our cart, explains study co-author Jonathan Levav, Ph.D.. Easy money-saving solution: Shop during off-peak hours and stick to stores that have wide, roomy aisles. And if you can’t do that, then think twice before putting that jar of pickled beets in your cart!
[photo: John Loo]
