Ways You're Secretly Tricked By Companies

Here are some shocking ways you're secretly tricked by companies!

Legal Stuff.

[IraRobinson]

I have an insidious one for you. It's called "Priming." A great example of it is grocery stores that have their floral departments right as you enter the building. What's been discovered is if someone sees or smells fresh cut flowers, for the next 30 mins or so, they'll be "biased" to think everything is fresher than it actually is. So, grocers will put the flowers right when you enter, and have their produce and meats right after. That way, even if the meats, fruits, and veggies are a little "off looking, " you'll still be influenced to think they're actually better than they are.

Creepy. But it's been used against customers for decades.

[ITIsFunnyDamnIT]

I remember when I worked for McDonalds. I got my ass chewed out by management for opening the large fries boxes all the way when filling them. They showed me that you don't push the fry boxes all the way so that it just looks like someone is getting more fries than they actually are. They strictly enforced this rule. So that's another reason you don't get your monies worth buying a larger size fries. The way the management had me not open the fry boxes all the way people were really only getting about a small fries worth of fries while paying extra for the large fries. You may get a few fries extra but NOT that much of a difference. I always thought that was such bullsh!t but they damn sure do that at McDonalds and still do that to this day. Also beware whenever a product, any product says new & improved. That always means you now get less product for your money. It's new and improved for the greedy corporations, not the consumers.

[caroldragon]

I am 82 years old and I started noticing some of these tactics when I was in my twenties. Dial soap kept changing the shape and weight of their soap bars WAY back. Women's clothing sizes were changing then as well. The one thing that I wasn't aware of was the speeding up of TV shows, although I did notice the number of commercials increasing. I timed one hour long show, and found that actual show time was only

[cmtippens]

Same with drug stores. People generally go to a drug store to pick up prescriptions but they put the pharmacy all the way in the back so that you have to pass all the over-priced snacks, batteries, and everything else on your way in and out in the expectation that, if you are sick or caring for someone who is, you'll be reminded that, while the milk or cereal here is obviously more expensive, you won't want to have to leave the house later to go to the store if you run out so, might as well get it while you're there.
Grocery stores have bakeries up near the entrance because the smell of of fresh-baked bread or cookies is practically a part of our DNA that takes most of us to a childhood feeling of being safe and relaxed, which tends to make us let our guard down...and buy more. We even have a grocery store near me that has its own barbecue restaurant just inside the entrance (and it is VERY good bbq, too). Coming in from the parking lot, the smell of the wood smoke is mouth-watering! 🤤😋
Once you're aware of these sneaky things, at least you can make a conscious decision of what to buy.

[phantmwolf]

I haven't watched cable television since moving out of my parent's house. The idea of paying for a service only to be sold advertising, never made sense to me.

[rosalindsongsmith]

There’s one tactic I’ve noticed that annoys the absolute crap out of me. I bet everybody has had this experience. You’re watching something on TV. It’s at a reasonable volume right? Then the commercials come on, and suddenly your TV is blaring! I bet that’s to get people to pay more attention to the commercials. Although I don’t know just exactly how effective that strategy is.

[mbcommandnerd]

8:03 - Hey, it’s shrinkflation! That one I _have_ heard about before watching this video. Funnily enough, the Pringles that you showed earlier refuse to do that! They even say right on the tube that there’s “Nothing half-full in _this_ tube!” And it shows: I’ve never bought a tube of Pringles that isn’t completely filled to the top, even with shrinkflation on the rise!

This comment is not sponsored by Pringles. I have no connection to them whatsoever besides buying their chips from time to time, and I thought I’d just give them some compliments on _actually_ being better than the competition!

[silvrfoxuBooboo]

I'm 70 now. Way back in high school, during my freshman year, it was mandatory reading of Vance Packard, about how corrupt the advertising industry is, and how well it works on humans. They spend billions to take our billions and it works like Slick50. One way I've used in the past, I've raised 6 kids (his, mine and ours), is to MUTE the tv when commercials are on! Faithfully! And now to this day, my kids HATE commercials! I was never bugged to buy certain products by the kids, I was never influenced to buy a certain product, I know how stores operate and shop accordingly. And if someone is slow with muting now, somebody is screaming "Mute the commercials already!" And, I noticed more commercials have been added! They have gone nuts! that mute button: it's like you get woke up from a coma! Thanks for the video! Very informative!

[dailleaucatherine]

Shrink-flation is more obvious in France because it's mandatory for grocery shops to print to price per kg or liter on the barre code so it's super easy to compare prices, no matter the quantity in the item itself

[rockero]

@20:00 about the bag of air.

While in a grocery store, I picked up a bag of Doritos but I noticed it was lighter than others of the same size.
I went to the fruit and veggies section (where you can weight the products) and actually weighted the bag.
The bag read "12oz" but the weight read "6oz" ( I have the picture), now THAT was a bag full of air.

Tip: if you think a bag or any box weight less than it reads, go weight it yourself or just don't buy it.

[msfaye]

The store layout change actually deters me from going back; Especially Target. Because it’s so chaotic with the cramming of clothing, incredible size fluctuations between which isle you’re in, it becomes too overwhelming unless you have the ability to see what idle things are in on the app, like Walmart has- it helps truly speed things up by creating a list-looking at the app in the location you’re going to shop at and beside each item write down the isle it shows or general area in the store ..with headphones in and that in mind- it does lessen my time there. May not work for every store or person but I am happy to hear that it’s done on purpose so I can “beat the system “ 😂

[ziranxu]

IKEA does the same thing. it is intentionally designed like a maze so that people have to walk around the whole shopping mall when they want to leave. The entire process takes up to 2 hours even if you don't stop to look at anything.

[lauragordon]

Speeding things up gives you a constant sense of urgency or the need to rush. Bad for a society that has lost its “patience” already

[JasonHalversonjaydog]

as a diabetic i can confirm when it says "low fat" it's usually high in sugar! i learned that wihle shopping for low sugar products, when i started looking deeper at the other ingredients. low fat means more sugar, or low sugar means more fat, it always balances out with something else

[Dexaan]

As a programmer, estimating the time things take is hard. The real point of a progress bar is to let you know the program hasn't frozen up

[NoName-uswn]

I disabled my cable years ago and just pay for a basic internet package. Saves a bundle. Now a days cable companies let you pretty much watch everything on their website for a fraction of the price. So long as you can get to it before they remove it from the site.

[joemackey]

Re-arranging store layouts is a big peeve of mine. But I am the get in-get it-and get out type and don't pay attention to items I'm not interested in while searching for what I went for.

[Zach-C]

I'm surprised price cuts weren't mentioned in the video. I see this during Black Friday a lot, where a company normally sells a product for $50, marks the price up (maybe the original MSRP?) to say $75, and then stamps a price cut of 33% on it. Man! 33% off! Huge savings, I gotta buy this! While this isn't really a secret, it's still a conniving practice.

[Ray-dwwg]

Shrinkflation pisses me off way more then raising the price.
Changing to cheaper ingredients to keep the price the same is also a terrible practice. Kraft Mac and cheese is a perfect example of this. I used to love it but now it quite literally tastes like cardboard due to a change in ingredients.

[rogerhuggettjr.]

My red flag on groceries is when I see something like "gluten free" on a food that would never have gluten. When they act like I'm stupid I wonder what else they would pull. Also, when I find out a health food like a nutrient supplement has artificial sugar but doesn't expressly state it I feel lied to. I would prefer to have natural fat and carbs than take in chemicals that I don't trust and only find out when I get home because I couldn't read the fine print.