<i>Not only do the prices stay fixed, but what might look like chalk on the board is actually indelible; the signs have been mass-produced in a factory.</i><p>I've eaten at so many restaurants that have written signs in chalk and <i>left them the same for months</i> that I <i>assume</i> those signs are months old. I've never been in a WF or Trader Joe's (which has the same practice) and thought "huhn, good price today"; rather I think "ah, they're on sale this week."<p><i>Ever notice that there's ice everywhere in this store? Why? Does hummus really need to be kept so cold? What about cucumber-and-yogurt dip? No and no.</i><p><i>What??</i> YES and YES... hummus is BEANS and beans go bad quickly even when cold. And yogurt is dairy <i>that's already started to go bad</i>.<p><i>Similarly, for years now supermarkets have been sprinkling select vegetables with regular drops of water--a trend that began in Denmark. Why?</i><p>Because leafy greens DRY OUT in drafty or warm environments. Yes water makes them rot, but the alternative is dry, wilted spinach.<p><i>Believe it or not, my research found that while it may look fresh, the average apple you see in the supermarket is actually 14 months old.</i><p>Yes, apples are kept in environmentally-controlled chambers so they can be sold all year. Of course if you buy an apple in March it's not fresh. <i>What does this have to do with priming?</i>
It's shameful to find this kind of pseudo-science on the front page of HN. Most of the article details plain old communication at work, but the author chose to paint it under dark intentions.<p>If a salesman chooses to put on a suit, cologne and an expensive watch, he's being professional about his job. He wants to communicate value. According to the author, this salesman would wear luxury objects to make me feel inferior and that I might attain his social status by buying his products.
A question for you all:<p>I've seen the Derren Brown video[1] mentioned at the beginning of this article. But I'm wondering whether it is "real". For example, there must be a cameraman in the car on the trip, and he deliberately films the supposed subliminal cues. Are we expected to believe that the people in the car did not notice this? And there are other carefully positioned cameramen on the route the car takes. Etc. I think it likely that the video is a setup -- or at least a very poorly designed experiment.<p>I realize that this article is really about Whole Foods and their marketing strategy. Still, the article spends three paragraphs talking about Brown's "trick", implying that it is solid evidence of an surprising and significant phenomenon.<p>And now the question: What you do think? Also, does anyone have more concrete evidence on trustworthiness of the Brown video?<p>[1] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyQjr1YL0zg" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyQjr1YL0zg</a>
This article does not demonstrate priming, just marketing. Priming would imply that what I saw in the front makes me shop in the back. But all the examples listed are to make me buy the item being displayed, not a different item.
<i>And as for apples? Believe it or not, my research found that while it may look fresh, the average apple you see in the supermarket is actually 14 months old.</i><p>I'd believe 4 months. Maybe 8. But 14 as the <i>average</i>? That would mean apples more than 14 months old just as likely as those less than 14 months old. Something about this statistic seems off.
Someone pays money for such primitive writings? May be I can get some part-time job? ^_^<p>One who wants to learn how to sell fruits or vegetables should visit some big Asian bazar (local word for a marketplace) and take a look. Most of sellers are gurus of merchandising, which in this context means how to place fruits, which ones to put together, which ones to put aside, which ones in customer's reach, which one only to display, aren't some kind of WF innovations, but quite old ideas. And instead of flowers they put fresh tiny branches with leafs, as if they were accidentally cut in harvesting. And of course, the ideas about showing boxes, as if it was just fresh delivery, or putting drops of water on fruits, or making a fresh cuts, giving you some fruit to touch or to smell, and so on.
The best markets I have seen was inside and around Kashmir valley, and, of course, street vendors in Nepal's capital Kathmandu. So, this article is something like, I don't know, an amateur take to the subject. ^_^<p>And all that Whole Foods thing is just for people who know no better. Fresh means when it comes morning time directly from a tree or from a field by people who brought stuff to sellers.))
Why was the only image in this article a picture of a female track race? Unless his book is published by Nike, I think the author/FastCompany missed the boat on priming us with an actually relevant symbolic!
They just described every large grocery store I've been to in the past few years. Hardly Whole Foods specific, and highly debatable anyway - I prefer all the ice, because normally that hummus or yogurt is a good deal warmer when I buy it than when it comes out of my fridge. And it'll likely sit there for quite a while before I come to buy it. And it has to survive the trip home. I prefer as much buffer-zone as I can get.<p>Ironically, though I've heard it referred to as "whole paycheck", many of the things I've been buying elsewhere I've found <i>cheaper</i> at Whole Foods - good kefir, for instance. Elsewhere things like that are oddball luxury items that they mark up considerably more while they have them, and get rid of when they don't sell as well. <i>That</i> is why I keep going back.
Penn and Teller aren't fooled.<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfGybFz6GRY" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfGybFz6GRY</a><p>All the "suggestion" stuff is called out around 7:30, but you may as well watch the whole clip to see what's being discussed.
Am I the only one really skeptical about that Derren Brown video? I think the real deal with that video is that it is just completely made up entertainment for the viewers, not an actual documentary of something that happened. That, or there is something not shown in it.<p>It seems rather unlikely to me that a few cues placed would make someone's behavior that predictable. What about the lifetime of other cues they have to draw from, or even just simple random whims that can influence the outcome?
Every successful store does this. And most successful websites too. Groceries are a low margin business so any price raising idea gets copied over and over. Retailers and consumer products computers are leaders in data mining to test, measure and retest techniques.<p>That said... The Columbus Circle Whole Foods is awesone. Pricey but awesome compared to other local options.
Derren Brown has consistently been vocal than Neurolingistic Programming does not work and every act he performs that seemingly involving NLP is actually done via sleight of hand.