Retailers: Do YOU Use "Tricks and Traps" with Your Customers?!?

A columnist for the Tribune Newspapers, Gregory Karp, is warning consumers to beware of today's oh-so-crafty retailers:

"They're using the latest research and high-tech tactics to appeal to your subconscious, in efforts to get you to spend more than you planned.  A consumer's best defense is to be aware of these head games and be a more mindful shopper."

What "head games" are  impressionable consumers to guard against?

• "Luxury cues" - visual cues in displays that connote success, triggering a shopper's desire for luxury indulgences
• "Sensory stimulation" - retailers who effectively use lighting, music and fragrance to influence buying decisions
• "Live models" - shoppers apparently are more likely to buy clothes that look great on a real person than on a mannequin
• "Clever salespeople" who can upsell, and will use "sincere flattery" to make a sale as well
• "Online tactics" - suggesting related purchases, and/or having a deadline on a special price

Hmm.  This is what we (admiringly!) call "the theater of retailing". Creating an engaging shopping environment for your customer.  Or, it's what others call "good customer service".  

In our view, to warn consumers that these are "tricks and traps" reflects an enormous lack of respect for today's shoppers.  Plus, it suggests that retailers are able to dupe unsuspecting customers into unwarranted purchases. 

That is simply not the world of retailing that we know.  Instead, we see retailers working very hard to deliver on the deceptively simple basics: Having the right product at the right place at the right time for the right customer.

No tricks. No traps. Just respect for the customer, respect for the merchandise, and lots of hard work.