A (Not-So-)Random Walk Around the Aisles

[MarketStEl]

Remember "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom," where the host would find some exotic animal and attach a tracking device to it so he could follow its movements undisturbed and capture them for us on camera?

A team of Wharton School researchers have just done that with Homo supermarketicus. Using GPS devices, they followed shoppers' paths around supermarkets and found some surprising things about how we shop. For starters, whether you enter on the left or the right side of the store makes a difference in how much time and money you spend in the store.

If you've wondered why the milk has suddenly moved closer to the checkouts at your local store, or why the Whole Foods Market on South Street in Philly is so much more pleasant to shop in than most supermarkets, follow the link below to an article in yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer business section:

"Big Brother, Aisle 5" (May require registration)

[Pontormo]

Cool, Sandy! Thanks for posting link. (Right now, you don't need to register.)

I am about to run out to three different stores. Safeway's a lefty, Whole Foods is entered on the right. Inspired by widely different responses to Trader Joe's and because I need a few expensive items for baking cookies, I will try that store...entered from the back and on the left, too, I think.

Meanwhile, okay to ask another question if you or others are familiar with the reasons why supermarkets do what they do, why are more and more places clogging up the aisles with those piles of opened boxes and other displays that prevent two-way traffic or more than one shopper from squeezing through?

They arouse cart-rage for me and I want to get out more quickly. It used to be just the low-end stores that did that, I thought, hoping to make you buy the plugged item even if you had no intention of doing so.

However, is there something more sinister going on? Is it a ploy to make you slow down and spend more time shopping and therefore buy more?

ETChange "Vic" to "Joe". Oops.

Edited December 17, 2005 by Pontormo (log)

[SuzySushi]

Meanwhile, okay to ask another question if you or others are familiar with the reasons why supermarkets do what they do, why are more and more places clogging up the aisles with those piles of opened boxes and other displays that prevent two-way traffic or more than one shopper from squeezing through?

They arouse cart-rage for me and I want to get out more quickly.  It used to be just the low-end stores that did that, I thought, hoping to make you buy the plugged item even if you had no intention of doing so.

However, is there something more sinister going on?  Is it a ploy to make you slow down and spend more time shopping and therefore buy more?

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The theory in merchandising has always been to place the most frequently-purchased items at the back of the store, forcing shoppers to walk by all the rest so that they'll buy more on impulse. That often backfires these days, when consumers in a hurry just get frustrated.

The aisle displays could be deliberate on the part of the supermarkets, or could be they're taking advantage of the free freestanding display "shippers" manufacturers ship products in, to avoid having to re-shelve the items. Shoppers are more likely to notice the items if they're in a separate display from the regular shelves, so the strategy does work.

[therese]

Interesting article. I shop the perimeter at my local Publix, as the middle of the store is pretty much dead space to me: most of it's prepared food and snacks, and I don't buy very much of it.

I do have a definite preference for right handed stores (something I'd noticed long before this study) and also like stores that don't move things around very much. I want to find tea in exactly the same place today as it was last week.

Most of my shopping's done at a local market called Dekalb Farmers Market. It takes a different approach, with the store arranged in zones. Produce the single largest zone, by far. Prepared food and snacks occupy a much smaller portion of the total footprint than in conventional supermarket.

[Toliver]

I do have a definite preference for right handed stores (something I'd noticed long before this study) and also like stores that don't move things around very much. I want to find tea in exactly the same place today as it was last week.

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My mom shops at a chain grocery store because no matter which store location she goes into, the layout of the store is exactly the same. She doesn't have to figure out where they put this or that.

Reading this article opened my eyes to the fact that I prefer a right entrance, too. I guess I'm a lemming!

And then I'm an up-one-aisle-and-down-the-next kind of shopper, unless I have a list and then it's like a pinball game...first over here then over there then back to here.

[mizducky]

A fascinating article. I bet if the researchers stuck a GPS monitor on me as I make my usual rounds, they'd fall over laughing. A short grocery store run doesn't seem to be in my behavioral repertoire--I can spend a ridiculous amount of time dawdling along, looking at different items and going "hmm, never used that before, wonder what it's like?". I also have this bad habit of zipping from one end of the store to the other repeatedly because I forgot something, changed my mind, had a sudden inspiration because of a particular item I found, etc. etc. etc.

The various attempted marketing ploys embodied by supermarket layout/item placement sometime amuse me, but mostly annoy me--especially, yes, that bit about clogging up the aisles with free-standing displays (boxes, racks, what-have you). Since I often use the electric carts for disabled customers to spare my creaky knees from all my wanderings and cross-store zippings, those displays turn into major menaces to navigation. Even if one is on foot, they can be a royal pain in a narrow aisle.

Another pet peeve of mine is trying to figure out where the hell they put something from the often-inscrutable signs hung over every aisle. Some stores forget to list everything on those signs, assuming that if, say, they list "Paper Towels" you will automatically figure out that all the other paper products are down there too. Or they'll list "Paper Products" -- but paper plates aren't in that aisle at all, they're in some other aisle like "Picnic Supplies". Many moons ago, I recall that some supermarkets would put a big directory sign in a prominent place near the front of the store, so you could look up for yourself what aisle something was in and go directly to it. I can only assume that the disappearance of those signs, and the inscrutability of the remaining signage, is yet another deliberate ploy to make customers pass through several aisles in order to find what they want, in an effort to tempt them to buy more stuff.

Oh, and perhaps off on a tangent--supermarkets around here seem to be indoctrinating all their staff to greet any customer they see paused in an aisle, and ask them if they're finding everything they need. Perhaps they mean well, but the over-solicitousness with which it's done really gets on my nerves. It doesn't help that they have a real knack for asking that when I'm in no need whatsoever, but then being marvelously absent when I actually do need them.

[dockhl]

The various attempted marketing ploys embodied by supermarket layout/item placement sometime amuse me, but mostly annoy me--especially, yes, that bit about clogging up the aisles with free-standing displays (boxes, racks, what-have you). Since I often use the electric carts for disabled customers to spare my creaky knees from all my wanderings and cross-store zippings, those displays turn into major menaces to navigation. Even if one is on foot, they can be a royal pain in a narrow aisle.

Another pet peeve of mine is trying to figure out where the hell they put something from the often-inscrutable signs hung over every aisle. Some stores forget to list everything on those signs, assuming that if, say, they list "Paper Towels" you will automatically figure out that all the other paper products are down there too. Or they'll list "Paper Products" -- but paper plates aren't in that aisle at all, they're in some other aisle like "Picnic Supplies". Many moons ago, I recall that some supermarkets would put a big directory sign in a prominent place near the front of the store, so you could look up for yourself what aisle something was in and go directly to it. I can only assume that the disappearance of those signs, and the inscrutability of the remaining signage, is yet another deliberate ploy to make customers pass through several aisles in order to find what they want, in an effort to tempt them to buy more stuff. 

Oh, and perhaps off on a tangent--supermarkets around here seem to be indoctrinating all their staff to greet any customer they see paused in an aisle, and ask them if they're finding everything they need. Perhaps they mean well, but the over-solicitousness with which it's done really gets on my nerves. It doesn't help that they have a real knack for asking that when I'm in no need whatsoever, but then being marvelously absent when I actually do need them.

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What she said !

[FabulousFoodBabe]

Oh, and perhaps off on a tangent--supermarkets around here seem to be indoctrinating all their staff to greet any customer they see paused in an aisle, and ask them if they're finding everything they need. Perhaps they mean well, but the over-solicitousness with which it's done really gets on my nerves. It doesn't help that they have a real knack for asking that when I'm in no need whatsoever, but then being marvelously absent when I actually do need them.

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O-M-G, I am SO with you on this one! It drives me nuts. I don't "like" grocery shopping, but I like to look around. My favorite stores always have their people say, "if you need anything, let me know - I'll be [wherever they are]."

Perimeter stuff is refrigerated, or used to be, for the most part, and needs replenishing more often. It's easier to refrigerate and maintain the cases when they're on the outside walls of the store (I have NO idea why freezers are always in the middle, except that there's not room for them on a wall).

An enormous A&P FreshMarket opened in the next town, and it's got these huge aisles and customers are always bumping a** with one another in them. Their produce department is set up like a little market, and it's impossible to get through. Drives me insane.

Endcaps -- those open-box displays -- really do get more use in the interior aisles. And there's a science to the music that's played ... it's more to keep people happy, upbeat, and wanting to stay a little while. When I want to focus on what I'm doing and not get distracted, I plug into my iPod.

[mizducky]

And there's a science to the music that's played ... it's more to keep people happy, upbeat, and wanting to stay a little while.  When I want to focus on what I'm doing and not get distracted, I plug into my iPod.

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Heh. Sometimes the "science" with which they program the shopping Muzak backfires in ways I don't think they realize. For instance--as a huge Steely Dan fan, I always crack up when I hear a Steely song come over the supermarket PA. Yeah, the melody and orchestration are really smooth, so the management probably thinks it's innocuous pop--but if they ever actually listened to the lyrics, they'd realize the goings-on being sung about are probably not what they'd prefer heard in their store.

Edited December 17, 2005 by mizducky (log)

[BarbaraY]

My preferred supermarket has doors right and left. I usually try for the right door because it's nearest my parking area but use the left door if I have a prescription waiting. That throws every thing out of balance because if I'm getting ice cream I have to return to that area of the store later.

Ours was recently remodeled and I'm still having a problem remembering where everything is. The carts have a list on them that tells which aisle has what. That's helpful.

All the freezers and refrigerators except one have been moved to the outside wall. The one that is in the center of the store has the beer and cheeses next to the liquor display. If you want a drink and a snack, just grab and run.

This store has a senior discaount day so DH and I used to shop then. The music that was played was very annoying so he complained and we were told that it wasn't up to the store blah, blah, etc. but we could use one of the cards that are at every register.

We filled it out and sent it and the very next trip there was a definite change for the better. They do listen. Small chain trying to hold out against the big guys.

Edited December 17, 2005 by BarbaraY (log)

[lcdm]

Reminds me of a book I read for one of my psych courses:

"Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping"

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/068484914...=books&v=glance

It was very interesting.

[tejon]

Guess I'm a mutant, as usual. I enter from the left pretty much always (pretty much all chains here have two doors, one on each side), and prefer shopping going in a clockwise direction. I go through the aisles very methodically, according to what's on my list, skipping aisles that don't have needed items, spending more time in the produce section before I'm done. I write my list according to where things are located in the store so it all takes less time. I'm very goal oriented, whether it be looking for the perfect side for a roast or finding the nicest medium grained rice. I pretty much ignore end cap displays, unless they contain something on the list.

In general, I make a lousy advertising guinea pig. Rather proud of that fact.

[Curlz]

...perhaps off on a tangent--supermarkets around here seem to be indoctrinating all their staff to greet any customer they see paused in an aisle, and ask them if they're finding everything they need. Perhaps they mean well, but the over-solicitousness with which it's done really gets on my nerves. It doesn't help that they have a real knack for asking that when I'm in no need whatsoever, but then being marvelously absent when I actually do need them.

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Wow--I can't imagine my local Shop Rite doing this, and for that, I am eternally grateful! After all, it's a store where I have to tell the 15 year-old cashiers what zucchini is... This is a major peeve of mine when I go to places like Linens and Things--the useless hello at every turn, coupled with the useless employee when I actually need something.

Interesting article, but I, too, am in the minority--I enter on the left (there is a right entrance as well), shop clockwise, and skip the aisles where I don't need anything. Unless it's a Wegman's, that is...

[Radio7]

We-ell,

I'm a clock-wise person I guess. I just go wherever's convenient for shopping, so I'm used to store doors being in all different directions. I've never thought about this aspect before.

I've read articles about this in the past. In particular, I find endcaps pretty darn annoying - they barely ever list prices on the things! That's just evil, man.

I went to a store the other day and travelled all over heck's half-acre trying to find the honey. One would assume it'd be near the pb, jam, spreadables-type stuff.Finally, I found an employee who showed me to the baking aisle - there were two types of honey on the highest shelf, tucked away amongst assorted other baking supplies.

That's kind of annoying. But generally, I feel savvy enough to know that they try and direct shoppers to the most expensive products, things they want to get rid of, etc.

I go in there focused like I'm on a mission. Don't buy anything w/out a coupon unless it's vital or a special occasion. When I have the chance, I wear headphones and listen to my own music - so I don't have to endure 'the greatest hits of Peter Cetera' or whatever.

Oh - one other thing - the mini tvs they have in each Ralph's checkout line are really over the top.....but I'll save you my anti-tv rap.

~Radio

[Curlz]

Another pet peeve of mine is trying to figure out where the hell they put something from the often-inscrutable signs hung over every aisle. Some stores forget to list everything on those signs, assuming that if, say, they list "Paper Towels" you will automatically figure out that all the other paper products are down there too. Or they'll list "Paper Products" -- but paper plates aren't in that aisle at all, they're in some other aisle like "Picnic Supplies". Many moons ago, I recall that some supermarkets would put a big directory sign in a prominent place near the front of the store, so you could look up for yourself what aisle something was in and go directly to it. I can only assume that the disappearance of those signs, and the inscrutability of the remaining signage, is yet another deliberate ploy to make customers pass through several aisles in order to find what they want, in an effort to tempt them to buy more stuff. 

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I forgot to mention that many of the stores around here have the detailed directories on the carts now (on the back of the 'seat' part)--very helpful for this issue!

[TPO]

I just go wherever's convenient for shopping, so I'm used to store doors being in all different directions. I've never thought about this aspect before.

Same here. I always go to the frozen food section last, so in the nearby chain grocery store that means heading right and going counterclockwise so I end up getting my frozen foods last. In my local natural foods store, I head left and go clockwise because their frozen foods are in the opposite place of the chain store. It's never annoyed me, and I never really thought about it before.

Another pet peeve of mine is trying to figure out where the hell they put something from the often-inscrutable signs hung over every aisle.

No kidding! They put six items on a sign for an aisle that holds about thirty different things, and I'm supposed to guess how they group them. Well, I wouldn't put crushed tomatoes with dried pasta when diced tomatoes are with vegetables, but I would put olive and canola oil with cooking supplies instead of in the ethnic aisle, so obviously I don't have a clue how they think.

[Chris Amirault]

Talk about a random walk around the aisles: at our local Shaw's and Stop n Shop megasupergigamarkets, if you ask where even slightly obscure things are, the staff take you on a nice little tour of the store, saying things like, "Yeah, well, it used to be here, I'm pretty sure... or... maybe aisle 17B...."

[MarketStEl]

Heh. Sometimes the "science" with which they program the shopping Muzak backfires in ways I don't think they realize. For instance--as a huge Steely Dan fan, I always crack up when I hear a Steely song come over the supermarket PA. Yeah, the melody and orchestration are really smooth, so the management probably thinks it's innocuous pop--but if they ever actually listened to the lyrics, they'd realize the goings-on being sung about are probably not what they'd prefer heard in their store.

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Didn't you spend some time in my dorm room groovin' to "Aja" in college? I find it especially hilarious if the store is playing "Hey Nineteen" or "Cousin Dupree" while I'm shopping. (Both are supremely catchy, very hummable tunes, like so much of Steely Dan's best--and both are about pedophilia, more or less.)

Now, my own confessions inspired by this article:

I'm usually one of those methodical, up-and-down-every-aisle shoppers. I actually like the game of food shopping: A local chain, Clemens Family Markets, used to run radio ads that began, "Okay, those of you out there who actually enjoy grocery shopping raise your hand." I reckon I was probably one of five listeners who did so when the ad ran.

And I also usually shop left to right, clockwise, in no small part because two of the three supermarkets I frequent have you enter to the left of the store. The Acme's entrance takes you into an enormous produce section as well as the deli and bakery departments; these three sections are the newer part of the store, which expanded into the space formerly occupied by a State (Liquor) Store about five years ago. From those you are funneled into the left rear corner of the original store, past the refrigerated cold cut/hot dog/breakfast meat case, which is--oddly enough--separated from the rest of the meat department by the service seafood and butcher counter; to the right of the prepackaged deli case, the regular aisles begin with the condiments, just as the first aisle past the produce on the left-hand side of my local Super Cruise^WFresh contains condiments.

But the Acme puts the cooking oil with the baking supplies two aisles away, while at the Super Fresh, the oils and condiments are in the same aisle. Similarly, the Super Fresh puts the frozen meats, poultry and seafood next to the fresh meat case, while the Acme splits the two between a space between the seafood counter and meat case and the frozen foods aisles next to the dairy case. Go figure.

Neither store has moved the milk out of the right rear corner of the store.

It's harder to "shop the perimeter" at the Super Fresh because it has two, sort of: The deli counter, bakery, and prepared-foods buffet are all located around the store commissary, which is just in front of the meat and seafood departments at the back of the store, creating an island just in front of the perimeter. This also creates three sets of aisles--the main set in the front of the store, and two smaller sets of three aisles to either side of the island, separated by a wide cross-store aisle. This does have the advantage (from the retailer's point of view) of offering more endcaps in a store that would otherwise have fewer due to its small footprint.

I almost always shop with a list, but also almost always buy stuff that's not on it because there's a sale. I also carry the Super Fresh circular with me to the Acme to make sure that I don't buy something at the Acme that's on sale for less at my last stop.

As for the Whole Foods Market I mentioned at the start of this thread: It departs from traditional American supermarket design significantly. I have heard that its design was inspired by European supermarkets the chairman of WFM visited on a trip a while back.

The entrance and exit are at the center of the store, but the layout sends incoming traffic to the right, into the produce section (natch). Your journey through the store roughly describes a C-shaped path counterclockwise, from produce to the seafood and meat counters at the right rear of the store. Past those, on the left, are the bakery counter and hot and cold foods buffet (two Y-shaped arrays); beyond these are the juice bar on the left, the cheese department in the middle and the deli/kitchen to the right. (Here they have precooked, refrigerated foods, cold sandwiches, sushi and rotisserie chicken as well as deli meats.) Once past these, the aisles begin, with the frozen foods to the right and the dairy case at the rear. The aisle immediately adjacent to the checkouts has a refrigerated grab 'n' go foods case and the salty snacks. It's a really great design--and designed to part you with as much of your money as possible early on, by putting all the good, fresh, natural stuff before the processed foods (even if these are processed the all-natural, totally organic way).

Edited to add: I also found it mildly amusing and mildly annoying to be asked by the checkout clerk at the Super Fresh, "Did you find everything you were looking for today?" as he or she rung up my order. But the question is not as inane as it sounds on first blush: there have been times when I've come in and the store's been completely out of some special item, in which case, the answer to the question becomes "No--you were out of <insert items>" and it's off to the courtesy counter for a rain check after checking out.

Edited December 18, 2005 by MarketStEl (log)

[ghostrider]

...perhaps off on a tangent--supermarkets around here seem to be indoctrinating all their staff to greet any customer they see paused in an aisle, and ask them if they're finding everything they need. Perhaps they mean well, but the over-solicitousness with which it's done really gets on my nerves. It doesn't help that they have a real knack for asking that when I'm in no need whatsoever, but then being marvelously absent when I actually do need them.

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Wow--I can't imagine my local Shop Rite doing this, and for that, I am eternally grateful! After all, it's a store where I have to tell the 15 year-old cashiers what zucchini is...

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Ha you beat me to it! God bless Jersey! There are times when living here is positively refreshing.

As for shopping patterns, depends entirely on (a) which store I'm in and (b) whether I need to hit the deli counter; if I do, I make a beeline for it, & that determines the course of the rest of my shop. I have this irrational phobia that if I dally to buy anything else, I will get stuck behind one of these people who are buying 8 lbs of bologna, 12 lbs of genoa, "gimme 6 lbs of that sale ham ya got - what yer out of it? - oh crud now what do I do - well, gimme 8 lbs of cheese - hmmmm, do I want white or yella today? - I feel a little crazy today, make it the white - now back to that ham...." I can never figure out how those people eat all those cold cuts before they spoil.

Since I'm shopping for only two of us, I rarely buy enough to use a wheeled cart; it comes into play only when I'm buying a case of bottled water or something similar. Then it remains in the back aisle of the "racetrack" while I make little guerilla forays into the aisles; it's almost never worth the effort of pushing the cart back & forth up the aisles.

Finally, from the article:

Hultquist of the Food Marketing Institute said some stores were now lowering aisle heights and adding walkways in the middle so stores feel more open.

I'd really like to see one of those stores with lowered aisles. I would think customers would get ticked off having to push the carts back up to ground level, but maybe the ride down makes up for it. I guess that's why they need the walkways in the middle, but then how do you reach the shelves from there?

[Malawry]

I worked in the deli-bakery of a supermarket for a summer when I was in college. The item nobody knew how to find: trash bags. I'd get asked at least 4 times every shift where they were.

I regard grocery shopping as a sort of game: how do I get in and out of the store in the most efficient manner possible? Back when I lived in downtown DC and carried my groceries by hand, I brought a backpack that I packed myself for my heavier groceries--so I started grouping groceries on the conveyor belt when I checked out to make that easier. Now it's a habit, except it's cold items together rather than heavy ones. I moved over the summer and learned my local markets within just a couple of weeks, so I never have to spend more than 30 minutes in them for a major shopping trip.

Wegman's is another story. I can spend hours in a store that carries that much merchandise and is so pleasant to shop.

[MarketStEl]

I regard grocery shopping as a sort of game: how do I get in and out of the store in the most efficient manner possible?

The former maintenance guy for my building -- a big fellow named "Tiny," natch -- used to describe the game he played this way:

"It's me versus the supermarket. Who is going to walk away with more of my money?"

If he managed to save 40% on his grocery bill, he bought himself a drink.

I share his philosophy. I went out and got plastered yesterday, when I managed to save 48% at the Super Fresh, a number I've never achieved at that chain.

Wegman's is another story. I can spend hours in a store that carries that much merchandise and is so pleasant to shop.

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I wouldn't know. I don't think they've opened any stores in urban locations yet.

[FabulousFoodBabe]

[as a huge Steely Dan fan, I always crack up when I hear a Steely song come over the supermarket PA. Yeah, the melody and orchestration are really smooth, so the management probably thinks it's innocuous pop--but if they ever actually listened to the lyrics, they'd realize the goings-on being sung about are probably not what they'd prefer heard in their store.

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Thank YOU, MizDucky, for the best visual of the day -- you, in that hat, buzzing around in your cart and playing chicken with the kiddie-carts, singing, "Don't take me alive."

[mizducky]

Heh. Sometimes the "science" with which they program the shopping Muzak backfires in ways I don't think they realize. For instance--as a huge Steely Dan fan, I always crack up when I hear a Steely song come over the supermarket PA. Yeah, the melody and orchestration are really smooth, so the management probably thinks it's innocuous pop--but if they ever actually listened to the lyrics, they'd realize the goings-on being sung about are probably not what they'd prefer heard in their store.

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Didn't you spend some time in my dorm room groovin' to "Aja" in college? I find it especially hilarious if the store is playing "Hey Nineteen" or "Cousin Dupree" while I'm shopping. (Both are supremely catchy, very hummable tunes, like so much of Steely Dan's best--and both are about pedophilia, more or less.)

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Good memory, Sandy. Maybe a whole new topic should be started on "most inappropriate song, either original or Muzak'ed, heard over a supermarket PA system." I know I for one have heard some real doozies--gee, people look at you funny when you start giggling in a supermarket aisle for no reason they can discern.

Thank YOU, MizDucky, for the best visual of the day -- you, in that hat, buzzing around in your cart and playing chicken with the kiddie-carts, singing, "Don't take me alive."   

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You're welcome! But don't forget my frequent stops to swear under my breath at either over-solicitous or vanished store clerks; or at "unit pricing" that's in five different units for the same class of item; or at produce that looks like someone took the word "squash" a little too literally.

[racheld]

THANK YOU, MizDucky, for the best visual of the day -- you, in that hat, buzzing around in your cart and playing chicken with the kiddie-carts, singing, "Don't take me alive."   

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Love it, LOVE it!!!! Best imagery since Dave the Cook left the moonprint in the sand.

And the hat is an absolute---please say you sleep in it, as well.

[petite tête de chou]

Guess I'm a mutant, as usual. I enter from the left pretty much always (pretty much all chains here have two doors, one on each side), and prefer shopping going in a clockwise direction. I go through the aisles very methodically, according to what's on my list, skipping aisles that don't have needed items, spending more time in the produce section before I'm done. I write my list according to where things are located in the store so it all takes less time. I'm very goal oriented, whether it be looking for the perfect side for a roast or finding the nicest medium grained rice. I pretty much ignore end cap displays, unless they contain something on the list.

In general, I make a lousy advertising guinea pig. Rather proud of that fact.

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I'm a left-to-right person as well, tho I always thought of it as reading a book. The fresh vegetables and fruits are the last items I pick up and I like to take my time in the produce section. Relax a bit before checking out.

I can stick to a list like nobodys business, so let the "powers that be" spend millions of dollars in product placement, subliminal music and tasting counters, I'm not buying it.

Edited December 19, 2005 by petite tête de chou (log)