Shopping as the "other"

Going to the grocery store is a normal errand that most of us have made hundreds if not thousands of times throughout our lives. We make the trip, we pick up the items that we need and leave without ever stopping to see the motives and tactics these stores have used against us. Whether you are a child, adult, black, or white, there are hundreds of items throughout each and every grocery store that are marketed specifically towards you to increase the likelihood of you purchasing that product. These marketing strategies can vary depending on many different factors, the community/town, demographics, or economy. You will obviously find products and brands marketed in a totally different way in a place like Pullman, than for example in a very inner city, urban, poverty struck area.

Personally when I entered the Pullman Dismores or Safeway I found the majority of items that stuck out to me were intended to appeal and advertise to WSU college-aged students. There were many obvious signs that this was the case. I know every supermarket in the state sells beer and wine but the amount on display right as you enter the store in huge mountains of Busch Light cases is unique to a college town. Also with the beer were many signs advertising the various brands Busch, Bud Light, Coors, the great sales they were having on their 30 racks, and the appeal it was supposed to have on football fans. Many of the signs stated slogans like “There is no such thing as college game day without Bud Light by your side” and many of the beers were supported and covered in ESPN and FOX sports logos. These strategies are blatantly aimed at the college students who are notorious for their extensive partying and drinking on weekends and football game days. Specifically WSU and Pullman have reputations for being a huge party school so I think the marketing of beer and sports was a strategic decision that was unique for this town, as opposed to a small town without the college community. Other things that were geared towards WSU students were small almost unnoticeable items like beer pong balls, red cups, mixers, or decks of cards that were on the ends of each isle or were right up at the check stand as you are making your purchase. All grocery stores carry these items but the placement of them right up front or on the end of every isle is directly aimed at the students in Pullman.




One main last item I found to be increasingly apparent all over the stores were energy drinks. Like the items I mentioned before, all grocery stores carry Red Bulls and Monsters but in the Pullman supermarkets there is a significantly higher amount of them, making it hard to go down an isle without at least seeing an advertisement or poster for one. I think it is a common belief that college students drink a lot of energy drinks or supplements, whether it is alone or with alcohol. They appeal to students because we live busy, tiring lives where many of us are pulling all-nighters to study for exams, or needing a Redbull to write a paper the night before it is due. Personally I drink a Redbull quite a few times a week as I imagine many of my classmates do as well, and for example the Tesero Gas Station having a two for $4.00 deal makes me want to go there every time I buy one because it's cheap. There is also the recent popularity of energy drinks and alcohol, and in a college, party town like Pullman it makes sense for stores to have an abundance of cheap energy drinks in stock for students.



Looking at the supermarket from a different perspective, for example as a small child wandering around with their parents grocery shopping, the various marketing strategies are still obvious and visible. Everything and every food product a child could ever imagine wanting is present in a place like Safeway and they are all purposely placed where a short little 7 year old can see and reach them. Products like dinosaur shaped fruit snacks, cartoon covered boxes of cereal, and every kind of chocolatey, sugary candy you could think of are all positioned perfectly so children can get at them. Healthy cereals like Special K or Cheerios are almost always on the top row because the stores know that the only people who are going to want to grab those choices are adults. Fun meals like Lunchables, Danimals yogurt, circus cookies and Disney shaped macaroni and cheese are all significantly low to the ground where children will always notice and grab them.

These are all perfect examples of the way companies, and large corporations work with one another to develop the best ways for them to make the most money possible. There are classes and positions of people who design these strategies and layouts as part of their career, for the sole purpose of making profit and tricking society. They use these techniques to manipulate and persuade customers into buying almost anything, even items you didn't even intend to buy when you got there. Why do you think they put staple items such as cheese, milk, eggs, and meat at the very back end of the store? It is so you are required to walk down isles and isles of products, making it more likely that you will see these advertisements and “great specials” and purchase more stuff. This is just another example of the power and influence that these large corporations hold in the global food system.