With end of the season sales and the beginning of Jeddah's shopping festival, sale signs are plastered on every store. But will customers save money or will they actually spend more than usual? According to reports, more than 50 percent of customers at one of Jeddah's main malls came out buying a lot more than what they wanted or even needed. Is this because the use of the word “sale” always targets depressed women looking for something to brighten up their day or rather closet? Financial Specialist Amanda Barened told Okaz/Saudi Gazette these shops can't really afford selling their goods at such low prices, but put up the sale signs in the hope that shoppers fill their cart full of other items at a higher profit. “It is a classic game of dangling a ‘loss leader' in front of consumers and hoping they don't come in to just buy that item and leave,” she said. About 70 percent of shoppers buy things that don't fit or need to be altered merely to buy discounted items. “What is absent from people's minds is that they are buying more than what they normally would buy in season making them spend twice as much or even more than they can afford,” Barened said. Personal shopper Samar Salim, who works for a royal figure, said that whenever she shops for herself, she finds herself putting notes on each item. “Some need to be altered because they lack detail that I want or have extra material I don't like or are too long or too short making me spend at least 50 riyals extra on every piece.” Samar said most of the time she is forced to either return the items that don't suit her or keep them in her closet until eventually giving them away. Samar has now decided to never go shopping when there are sales because she never buys anything she completely likes. But profits are not made haphazardly; marketing has a specific branch called behavioral marketing, which creates environments strategically set to make a person spend more. The book on the mind of the shopper: The Science of Retailing by Herb Sorensen explains why special offers and discounted items are stationed in the entrance of stores. “We call it ‘The Landing Zone'. This is the tag given to the first 15 or so feet within a store. While in this area, shoppers are not yet in browse or buy mode, and will generally ignore special offers and product displays that greet them,” he said. And this is the reason why Jeddah retailers keep this area filled with discounted items or special offers. This allows innocent customers to gather their thoughts and begin their journey through the store which makes them spend more during sales and not vice versa. __
