Shopping cart full of produce
Grocery shopping is expensive. Bottom-line. There’s no way of getting around the high prices. Or is there?
Grocery shopping with a list and on a set budget is the best way to go. However, whenever I go grocery shopping on an empty stomach I end up buying more than my list and budget allowed me to. Then I wondered if there was a difference in my grocery bill if I shopped while on a full stomach or an empty stomach. Have you ever gone to the grocery store hungry and left with a receipt much larger than your appetite? I know I’m definitely guilty of doing so.
Recently, researchers conducted an experiment on why people buy more when shopping hungry. The experiment consisted of participants being injected with a hormone called ghrelin that increases hunger. An eBay type website was created for the participants to bid on edible items and also non-food items. During the process of the participants bidding, researchers used an fMRI machine to observe their brain behavior and their findings were not all too surprising. The hormone, grehlin really affected the way participants decided which items to bid on. The hunger overwhelmed the brain and choices were made more towards edible items than non-food items.
There are also other factors that manipulate the brain into buying more when shopping on a hungry appetite. For instance, those that get less than six hours of sleep a day are sleep deprived, which causes the brain to crave for more energy. In addition, the feeling we all know, stress. Stress tricks the brain into wanting food to compensate for the actual stress we are in, thus subconsciously making you buy more when grocery shopping.
Long grocery receipt
When the body is hungry, all it wants is food. We all know the feeling of being so hungry that our stomach growls so loud the person next to you can hear it. It’s the stomach’s polite way of saying to refuel yourself with some food. Now you can understand why sometimes you find yourself at the grocery store with a shopping cart full of expensive groceries just because your empty stomach persuaded you to do so or maybe even other factors.
If you’re hungry, sleep deprived, or stressed, maybe it’s not the best time to go grocery shopping. You’re already trying to avoid high-priced groceries, so feeding your appetite can possibly keep that grocery bill down and your cash flow up.
Have you ever gone to the grocery store hungry and left with a grocery bill more than you expected? Tell me your story or leave some comments. Thank you for reading!
I am a fourth year at the University of California, Riverside studying Business in Administration with a concentration in Marketing. Currently, I am also an Inbound Marketing Intern for the company, IT Retail POS System. My position as an Inbound Marketer is updating our social media, optimizing our website, and blog.