Martin Lindstrom, author of (What your supermarket knows about you) exposes secrets that will make you think twice at the grocery store.  For the working person money is what drives them to work more. So what is the motivation to spend the money one has worked so hard for? Necessity, things that would make life very difficult and or uncomfortable to go without.  In hard times do we simply buy what is necessary, or do over compensate?

            Work can be a great thing it allows independence to flourish extending opportunities in varies ways.  Although at times it can be tedious as well as strenuous hard work quite often leads to success. Success can be measured in many ways, but it is more commonly measured in wealth. For the average person money is at the top of the list of stress inducers. It is a known fact that money is what moves the economy. It is also statistically proven that people in poverty or below the poverty line are the ones who spend the most of it. In such dire positions one may ask themselves, why would they spend more? The answer is simply necessity.

           

            Things become necessary when we determine we need them. When a person is working to earn a paycheck to live week to week all the money they have becomes necessary! Every dollar severs a purpose in the everyday lives of the poor, and sometimes even the middle class. The flow of a good moving economy is comparable to the input and output of an impoverished man’s income.  As the money comes in it quickly goes out. Being that most of his money is tied up in prior commitments a greater concern arises from within this conflict. How can I save money!

            Good for the economy not so good for the working man. Cash flow management starts to become a priority when you barely have enough to get by. A good example of this would be the sale of gasoline. While the man in poverty can only afford to fill his gas tank half way. The better off man fills his tank completely. Known by most that a full tank of gas will last you longer than filling it periodically the man with more spends less. The gasoline station sells the gas regardless but when purchased by the man with less it sells more of it and more frequently.

            In this article Lindstrom unveils a wide range of tactics used by supermarkets, and their intentions behind them. Their main objective is to manipulate you into spending more. As stated by Lindstrom “there’s no way of getting away from our primitive survival technique of hoarding food to see us through lean times.” One of the tactics revealed in this article was the maximum three cans person with a sales price. This sign might have given the impression to shoppers that others thought it was it great deal. With this preset mind frame shoppers might think that the limit is due to people waiting in line to get it. Also they might think that there are not many left in stock because the deal is so good the product is flying off the shelf. In reality it’s all just to get you to buy more. Do you need all three cans? With the urgency instilled in the sign, and our desire to stretch our money you buy extra. Just like the man who is able to save on gas. Now you too get to save on food because you have more. So yes most of us do over spend, but justified in our minds money well spent is not money spent at all.