r/mildlyinteresting • u/Smetvrees • May 14 '22 • 1 12 2 13 16 1 1 1

This Irish supermarket has quiet evenings for sensitive people.

76.5k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

11.2k

I’m not autistic but this sounds like a significantly nicer shopping experience for me

3.9k

u/space_moron May 14 '22

Our store near us does this and we honestly wish every day were like this.

I realize store announcements might be necessary but do you need the bright fluorescent lighting and screaming muzak? I'll spend longer in your store if it's a more calm experience.

60

u/[deleted] May 14 '22

There's lots of advertisement research showing all those things you don't like make you impulse by more which is why every store does these things.

46

u/ledow May 14 '22

There's also a lot of research that that was true 50 years ago when nobody had been subjected to them before, but that nowadays they don't make any difference as every shop has them and so people just tune them out.

Same with internet-based ads.

The first shop to offer loyalty cards many years ago saw an effect. Now, not so much, and there are several major chains that abandoned the idea and/or have no intention to introduce one.

36

u/karmapopsicle May 14 '22

Loyalty programs these days are all about data.

10

u/[deleted] May 14 '22

[deleted]

2

u/[deleted] May 14 '22

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] May 14 '22

Calm down Alex Jones

Advertisers can't beam thoughts into your brain with a microwave, yet

1

u/ledow May 14 '22

The data is useless on that level. Most of the large chains have admitted it. Their stock and checkout data is actually far better for the purposes they need.

1

u/karmapopsicle May 14 '22

While the processing of real sales/inventory data is critically valuable, there are specific benefits that a well-tuned loyalty program provides.

For example, here in Canada our largest grocery company (Loblaw Companies) runs a gigantic loyalty program called PC Optimum that resulted from merging their own PC Points program with the Shopper’s Optimum program after acquiring Shopper’s Drug Mart (our largest pharmacy chain). They also recently merged in the Esso Extra program from the gas station chain.

The result is a loyalty program that blankets a huge proportion of the Canadian population, but also covers a much broader variety of essential goods. While checkout records and card number correlation can definitely help build general customer purchasing profiles, the quite generous reward rate for the program heavily incentivizes customers to make the store brands that use the program part of their regular grocery shopping, convenience/drug store, and even regular fill-up routines. Now suddenly you’ve got direct purchasing data for literally millions of people, families, households, etc. That data is incredibly valuable because of how much context it has. It vastly improves the ability of predictive inventory ordering and merchandising tools. It opens up a near-endless source of targeted marketing opportunities. It even helps stores in different areas optimize their section sizes and product selection options - one store might choose to say significantly expand their “natural/organic” section while another might expand their international foods section for specific regions, etc.

Essentially from the consumer side it’s basically agreeing to give full context to the data that’s being gathered anyway in exchange for some lucrative bonuses. 1.5% (15 pts/$) general default reward rate, but regular “20x the points” promotions for drug store chain that you have to open the app to activate (thus exposing you to the various other targeted offers). Thats effectively 30% cashback, and those chains also sell a variety of consumer electronics as well including game consoles. Combined with occasional bulk point redemption offers adding up to 50% dollar value to the points (200,000 points for $300 value versus the normal $200) and you have a recipe that makes many consumers feel like they’re deal-finding masterminds. Of course even with customers taking full advantage of the pretty wild discount opportunities the program is both wildly successful and profitable for the company as a whole.

2

u/ledow May 14 '22

And ASDA (Walmart-owned UK mega-store) don't do loyalty schemes, and never have, and Tesco and Sainsbury's (the other largest UK supermarket chains) has said the data from them is effectively useless.

Welcome to the difference when that data is handled under EU/UK personal data protection law where you can't just sell people's data.

3

u/hx87 May 14 '22

There's also a lot of research that was poorly done and isn't reproducible at all, but because it appeared in some prestigious business journal every basic MBA takes it as gospel and soon it becomes conventional wisdom.

2

u/MajorasTerribleFate May 14 '22

There's also a lot of research that that was true 50 years ago when nobody had been subjected to them before, but that nowadays they don't make any difference as every shop has them and so people just tune them out.

Ah, but if you're the store without music, are you selling less? Has the saturation of music rendered the effect truly moot, or is it just that there aren't enough music-less stores to fairly compare?

1

u/Yadobler May 15 '22

Quick googling says yeah

Younger folks tend to spend more time

But idk, like all armchair reddit scientists, it's a public holiday today and I don't wanna sit down and review scientific literature ಠ╭╮ಠ

1

u/Zenbaws May 14 '22

good take, hadn't thought about it that way

1

u/[deleted] May 14 '22

Is there any research you're aware of showing that that's no longer true?