Impulse Buys

Most of the items at the checkout tap into our most powerful emotional trigger – pain. That pain can come from hunger, thirst, or headaches from the blazing fluorescent lights. To top it off, we are given a time limit to make a decision on addressing this pain – we only have until our turn in line to pick up these items.

Long lines make it worse. If we were already hungry before, we feel even hungrier when we don’t know how long it’ll take for the person in front of us to load up their purchases. Worse yet, the most tempting items are right at eye level – just asking us to take them and indulge in their salty goodness.

Impulse items also seem reasonably priced, e.g. $1.19, $3.29, $1.98. Remember that value-killing attitude, “Oh well, I've overpaid this time, no biggy.” That applies to this price range.

The way to overcome these high-markup purchases is two either:

• Satiate our impulses before we buy (drink, eat, put on lip balm)
• Distract ourselves (estimate the total price of the purchase, find out who Jessica Simpson is dating)
• Prepare to satiate our impulses later (keep junk food/snacks in the car or on our person)

Planning for impulses is the best way to keep thrift.