You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast.
Mama Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast is recorded on Hi Nothing to Wear listeners. I'm Grace Rufrey, the producer of Nothing to Wear and the host of the evening headlines on our news podcast, The Quickie. With the Black Friday sales just around the corner and some of them have even started, I wanted to share an episode of the Quikie to help you
prepare for the shopping frenzy. It's all about making sure you're buying what you truly need or will actually use, because let's be honest, we've all been tempted by those irresistible seventy five percent off signs. In this episode, The Quickie host Claire Murphy dives into why we sometimes can't resist a sale, even when our budget says otherwise. She speaks with experts in psychology and behavioral science to unpack the allure of discounts and explore why that rush of
dopamine from a bargain can feel so satisfying. Get ready to shop smarter and stay in control this Black Friday. This is the Quiki and the Psychology of sales.
You count mess it our genuine summer sale.
So when you buy one, you get one free.
Up to twenty five percent of fronts of half of discount and sale right, loads of styles, tons of choice, and store white savings.
How many times have you said to yourself, is sticking to your savings plan this time? You won't buy any new clothes for the next six months. You won't even go shopping for anything other than the essentials, only to find yourself at the counter holding an impulse by because that percentage off red and white sales sign out the front spoke to you fashion technology, homewares. It doesn't matter what the thing is. If it is eighty percent off,
it all of a sudden becomes irresistible. We have been so well trained in sales psychology that retailers have set appointments with us throughout the year where they know we're more likely to go on a spending spree. January is often buy one, get one free month instead of thee of variety because retailers are keen to move out the
leftover stock from the Christmas period. Then we head into February's Valentine's Day, where florist's cash in through to Mother's Day in May, there's click frenzy and a financial year which we now lovingly refer to as earfus, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas all the way through to Boxing Day at the end of December. All year round, we are geared to save, save, save, when really what we're doing
is spend, spend spent. How many ways are retailers working their ways into our brains when it comes to sales time. Matt Plant is the head of behavioral Sciences thinker at Thinker Bell. Matt, why are sales signs red and white? What is it about that color scheme that draws us in?
It's mostly because it works, which sounds like a simple thing to say, but people have explored lots of different colors for sales. Yellows and reds work really well, and there's lots of different things to just say, people are attracted to it, So it catches people's attention. Reds the color that kind of stands out up and we've been trained to see that combination of colors in this setting of environments says there's an opportunity for some kind of reward over there.
It's usually a sale.
Well, let's talk about that reward for a second, because experts say that when we are out wandering around in retail spaces, it takes us less than one second to decide whether or not we're going to buy something. How do retailers make sure that they make the most of those of us who are making those impulse decisions.
It's really interesting. There's a concept called stopping power.
So the more likely you are to stop at a point in a retail environment, the more likely you are to purchase that thing. So basically they're just trying to capture attention as much as possible. You'll be walking through an aisle and you'll be seeing stickers all over the place. You'll be seeing tickets that say sale or here, sale or here.
That'll make you stop. That's enough to push you towards it.
How important is the language that's used around sales, especially in that way that convinces us that we're actually saving when really what we're doing is spending.
It's really important.
It's language, and there's also presentation, So there's a lot of research that goes into the size of the numbers that you see, so emphasizing the amount that you're saving, the fact that it's bigger makes it feel like it is more, and the price being smaller means you feel like you are spending less. So it's this weird analogy of big means more, small means less, and so it's not just necessarily the words that go around it. It's also the sizing where it's placed in a particular ticket.
So there's research that shows that when a number is higher up, it feels like it's lighter, so therefore it's less, and when it's lowered down it's heavier, so it feels like it's more. So all of those things kind of play into it as well as just words like saving or off. Yet it's also the sizing and shapes of things.
When retailers are reducing prices like this, obviously, so much goes into how much they charge us when it's full retail price. I mean, there's so many factors from manufacture all the way through to you know, rent and wages and all the things that go into costing and pricing a certain product. When they are having sales that seem too good to be true, you know those eighty percent off kind of things where things are a fraction of
what they were at for retail price. Are retailers ever losing when they reduce things to those smaller amounts.
So overall, good retailers aren't ever losing. In those instances, they might take a loss. We might call that a lost leader. So you might have an instance where someone comes in, sees an amazing sale, and that amazing sale was enough to bring them in. They purchase that, and the retailer loses, but then they might purchase something else, and therefore they make their money back that way. So it's about bringing you into the store and then expanding
how much you buy. But most of the time, unless it's to remove stock, they'll always make sure they make a profit. That's how they keep themselves in business.
How important, too, is a setup of a store, and especially for those retailers that are like a chain and pretty much essentially every store looks exactly the same. How important is the structure of a store as to how much money we might spend in it.
There's a lot of research that says that where you structure a store.
Is really important. You walk into a store and you often see flowers, and you'll smell nice things, and you'll hear nice music, which puts you into a positive kind of frame, and then you're going to walk around the store in a positive state of mind, which means you're more likely to purchase. So there's little things like that which are just sort of perceptual structures of the store. But then where you put certain items that are impulse
purchase matters too. So if you put them at the ends or the front of the aisle, if you put them right at the end, people are in a kind of rushed mindset or a quickened mindset, so they're not really controlling their behaviors as much, and so they're more likely to make that impulse.
Why do some stores go berserk with the four sale signs? Like there are certain retailers who literally plaster the entire frontage of the store, every space that is available on every shelf is covered in tickets and signage, and then others tend to really keep it quite simple, Like what is the difference between those who go completely over the top with sale signage and those who just pair it right back?
It's interesting. It says a lot about the brand, and it says a lot about the experience that you're likely to have. So the ones that put sale signs all over the front that's going to bring people in because they feel like they're going to get some kind of reward or deal. It's a big sign post that says you're likely to get a great experience here from a value perspective, And so most of the time we go into those stores, people aren't really comparing with other stores.
If this is better, some people might look on their stones, but most of the time you've sold us on the idea that whatever we get in this store now is going to be a great deal.
So therefore I'm happy. Whereas the ones.
That don't have as much of the sale thing is because they want you to think that their product is premium. They want you to think that their product is really good, and if it's cheap or if it's constantly kind of reduced, it might make it seem not that good anymore, so is it really worth having in the first place. So it depends on the category that you're buying, But both of those levers can kind of be pulled depending on what shopping experience people are having.
Is there any way, in your opinion, we can avoid being influenced by these or is it just we're at this point now where we are so influenced by all of the psychology that's gone into house stores and online retailers bring us in with their email campaigns, etc. Is there any avoiding it now?
I think to some level we kind of enjoy it as much as not having much money or spending lots of money, and the feeling after isn't great. There's a bit of a rush in the shopping experiencing getting a good deal. There's a bit of a rush in a thing like you got something out of that, or you were able to be a little bit clever and you're purchase there. I would say if you want people to avoid it, it's to try and stop those emotional reactions.
Stop those moments.
Where you go, oh, I just want to get a good deal, or I just really want to have that product, or I can't possibly not get this product now because it won't be on sale next week. You have to stop those emotional reactions by probably being really clear on what your budget is. What are my budgets for my needs, my wants, my nice to haves, and my luxuries, and then if you kind of bracket that out that way, you're probably.
Unlikely to be taken over by the emotional stuff.
But you know, if you enjoy shopping, and you enjoy that experience, go for it.
There are a ton of triggers that kick in when you head to the shops. Sales are competitive, and that brings out our basic instinct to win. That's why they do flash sales and limited until stock's last promotions. It makes us panic that will miss out, and that fomo can also turn into the need to own it first, the first new smartphone release, the first pair of limited run sneaks, or the active we're being promoted by that
major celebrity influencer. We love the idea that we're saving money, even though in a sale where we buy items we don't need, we're spending more. Most of us will tell you how much we saved at the checkout, but arna's forth coming with how much we shelled out for it.
We love to brag about how little money we spent ourselves because.
The art isn't the savings. You never paid full price. Like my mom, her catch raise is guess how much.
It's the same as gamblers telling you about their winnings rather than their outlay.
We also get.
Emotionally invested in items and if we miss out, like if you put something in your cart and then find it's out of stock when you proceed to check out, you may still go and buy something else to fill the whole the loss of that item has left behind. So how do we identify our triggers and then make sure we spend deficiently rather than emotionally. Carlie Dover is
the director of the Australian Association of Psychologists. Carlie, A lot of the comparisons made when experts talk about the high that we get from snagging a bargain is that it's in line with the high you get from gambling or from drugs and alcohol, that it actually gives you that same dopamine hit. Is there truth to that comparison? It seems a bit extreme.
Yeah, our brains can't really differentiate much between particular behaviors, and if our brains release that's sudden rush of dopamine, it feels good. So we'll continue to do it whatever it might be.
But what about the aftermath, Because, as we know, when you have a gambling addiction, if you lose, or if you have a drug and alcohol addiction and the effects of that drug or alcohol wears off, do we have the same thing with shopping. If we do get that high, as there a come down after there.
Is, it is a bit of an empty wind. Neuroscience tells us that dopamine feels really good if we have to work a bit harder to get whatever the reward might be, and to work a bit harder. I don't mean go from one shop to another shop to get a different sale. I do mean, you know, gardening for a while and then over time having you know, different flowers or different vegetables grow. It's that sustained work to then get that reward that feels most pleasurable and the
most fulfilling. But these empty kind of activities such as gambling or participating in sales that might feel good in the moment, but you don't actually need, they can feel like a bit of an empty high.
Do we need to look at why we're chasing that high? Like I know, a lot of people say that they find shopping and browsing relaxing. Others see it more like the thrill of it, treasure hunt. And some people say that they do it just because they've been feeling really lonely and it's a way to kind of socially connect with other humans. Do we need to look into the motivation for us going to shops in the first place and use that as a way to maybe keep more of our dollars in our own pockets.
I definitely think so, and I think longer term while shopping again in the short term might scratch an itch or make us feel connected or like we're engaging in somewhat of a distraction if something else in our life doesn't feel too good, thinking about the long term, what is actually going to make me feel better about this situation or give me longer term memories in my life for this year. If I don't go shopping today, and
if you need something, that's fine, go for it. But if you're finding yourself in a bit of a habit where you don't have as much money as you'd like to, where you aren't doing things like going on holiday or making new memories or having new experiences because you are shopping and engaging in sales more than you objectively need to, I absolutely think it's time to review what might be driving that behavior.
We spoke to Matt just before, who talked about trying to find ways to regulate our emotions when we go shopping, and maybe that a way to stop that impulse buying is to walk away and think about it, and then if you've thought about it and you still want to make the effort to go back and buy it, then that's kind of regulating that emotion enough rather than just buying it then and there on the spot. Do you think that is a good tactic to take into the sales.
I think that's fantastic, And you can do that even when you're Internet shopping. Put something in your cart, leave it for the next day if you still want to get it, but if you don't, again, move on to something else. Because I'd also just like to say that shopping centers or shops, they're all designed to keep you engaged.
And their music, the temperature, the colors, the signs, all of these things are designed to draw you in and make you think that you're getting an amazing sale and hit that urgency mood where if I don't get it now, I'll never be able to get it. And we know that's not true when we're not around a shopping center, but in that moment, it might just be easier, it might feel better to do it. Then waiting is always helpful.
So next time you say to your mates that you're off for a bit of retail therapy. Remember you're actually treating yourself with a little dose of dopamine and that feel good hormone is strong. Thanks for tuning in today, friends, taking some time to feed your mind. The quickie is produced by me, Claire Murphy and our executive producer Caliborg, with audio production my Tomline