Jezebel
A new study reveals that when your appetite is whetted, you're more likely to impulse buy, reports EurekAlert. Scientists have discovered that a delectable aroma can make you purchase something you can't really afford: Female study participants in a room with a hidden chocolate-chip cookie scented candle were much more likely to make an unplanned purchase of a new sweater — even when told they were on a tight budget — than those randomly assigned to a room with a hidden unscented candle (67% vs. 17%). What is it about the human brain? Do yummy smells put us in such a good mood that we're willing to throw caution to the wind? And, just for a moment, think about what retailers could do with this information: Will Gucci start baking brownies?
Will Wal-Mart start pumping the scent of French-fries into stores? Will all of Las Vegas reek of Bundt cake? Stores really need to do something to lure shoppers in: According to the Wall Street Journal, MasterCard is reporting a surge in online sales, especially in luxury goods. But the next time you're shopping online — from the comfort of your own home — ask yourself: Do I really want that YSL bag, or do I just smell that dinner's almost ready?
Stimulating the appetite can lead to unrelated impulse purchases [EurekAlert!]
Retail Sales Fall in Some Categories But Surge Online, MasterCard Says [WSJ]
Comments
I know that a hidden chocolate-chip cookie scented candle will cause me to engage an unplanned eating of cookies episode. I'll have to take your word on the sweater buying though.
i worked at anthropologie. my entire workplace smelled delicious. i once saw a woman spend $500 on various styles of white tee shirts.
i count this as a valid study.
i've been using this tactic to attract men. i try to smell like baked goods whenever possible.
it hasn't gotten me a man. maybe if i was for sale...
A chocolate-chip-coocke scented candle?? I personally cannot think of anything more revolting, but then I have this thing about inedible things smelling like food.
I would probably leave the store. *whew* Safe from the scary trick-me-into-spending-too-much-money tactics.
kinda like baking chocolate chip cookies while prospective home buyers are checking out your house. not too sure if that would work right about now though.
@distractedbyshinyobjects: All pastry related candles give me migraines. For real.
I don't need any fancy smells to impulse buy. I just need to be conscious.
Good note - I'll stay away from the pastry-smelling stores.
excellent, a new excuse for impulse purchasing! i was running out of reasons for coming home with a dress from the cute boutique next to starbucks every time i pop out for coffee. "Honey, the store smelled like gingerbread. i was utterly defenseless..."
I'm going to save lots of money if they start scenting up every store. Most of those scents give me headaches and make me walk out of stores.
Candles that smell like "fruit" or some sort of sweet baked goods? Um, I know they're a favorite with Wal-Mart shoppers.
it's why the exact same lexus in japan and america will smell totally different. the japanese don't associate the smell of leather with luxury, but americans do!
Walmart already smells like stale nachos and pretzels. God, I hate that fucking store. Disgusting. /snob
Cookie stores cause me to buy lots of cookies. Is that proof of anything?
@distractedbyshinyobjects: Seriously revolting. I like the smell of real baked goods baking, but the fake baked good smells are just about as bad as the taste of banana candy.
@charlotte corday: I hate the smell of luxury, and have never understood how anyone actually liked the smell. If I ever get a Lexus, I'm having it imported straight from Japan.
So I'm kind of curious: if the article doesn't mention anything about male study participants, does that mean they just didn't both to test this on males, or that there were no significant results with males?
The Wal-Mart by me has a subway in it so the whole store smells of freshly baked bread all of the time. No wonder I buy so much useless junk.
I don't, know, because I think that anything that tries to smell like food that actually isn't food is nasty. I would vomit all over that sweater and still not pay for it.
@petuniacat: I'm going to start measuring the badness of things against banana candy, since those are pretty damn bad.
In other news, those brownies are a fucking masterpiece. GET IN MY MOUTH.
@Jeremy: Dear Snob: It doesn't matter what Wal-Mart smells like, I will NOT shop at the fucking evil empire. Love, Other Snob
@thefiftyfourth: Nom?
@TruculentandUnreliable: I should read before posting, because everyone else said that.
@petuniacat: UGH. HATE BANANA candy. I also think that fake watermelon may be the nastiest thing on earth. Just the smell of it makes me sick.
@thefiftyfourth: Ha! Males don't care about chocolate chip cookies, and they certainly don't shop!
Mmmmm chocolate chip cookies..
@BAngieB: It's tough to avoid evil empires these days. Even Apple and Whole Foods are evil to some people.
But being surrounded by a bunch of fucking yokels missing teeth, screaming children, and people who didn't graduate high school is not my idea of a good time.
It squicks me out more than i can ever describe.
@confusednoodles: I have a love/hate relationship with baking bread. In practice, I mostly like the smell. But when I think about it, I can only imagine the disgusting yeasty smell of Subway's fresh bread baking (srsly - I can smell a Subway from blocks down the street...gross) and it makes me want to yak.
@JessicaLovejoy: Oh noes! I love banana Runts. Hate real bananas though.
@JessicaLovejoy: Hah! Banana candy scale of disgustingness.
This post isn't giving me an urge to shop, but it is giving me an urge to call my aunt and ask her to make a batch of her super-special peanut butter rice crispy treats that are covered with a quarter inch of melted chocolate.
Delicious food smells only make me want to buy delicious foods, not sweaters.
This explains SO MUCH about our financial state (the GF and I). We thought it was the booze that made us scroll through the online banking screen and go, "How in the bloody fuck did we spend $1500 in one fucking weekend?"
So, if yummy food smells are good for retail and none of us are actually supposed to eat anything in order to be able to wear what we're buying, then...well, you tell me, smartypants!
@Jeremy:
yeah i agree the walmart environment sucks, but it sucks more for me to pay double for stupid claritin and aspirin anyplace else.
@msAnthrope: What about Target?
mmm... rice crispy treats...
I have no Wal-mart close enough to be convenient. It's sort of strange. Honestly, it's worth the extra money I have to pay at Target to have a pleasant shopping experience. Wal-mart makes me hate America.
@blackbirdfly:
ME TOO on both counts. Maybe its because banana runts taste like, well, candy.
I have this theory that all normal people over the age of 10 don't like real bananas because they were forced to eat them as kids. Blech.
@msAnthrope: Rite Aid?
@Jeremy:
the closest target to me is a 20-minute ride, while the walmart is 5 minutes away. although i haven't compared their prices to the stuff i buy at walmart, either. hmmm~~ not disagreeing with you that it's my least favorite shopping experience!
@BAngieB:
there's a new rite-aid right down the block from me. their prices are double that of walmart's. example: i can get 50 rite-aid brand aspirin for about $5. i can get 200 walmart brand aspirin for around the same price.
@thefiftyfourth: Now I wantz teh banana Runtz. I wish they were sold separately.
@msAnthrope: Shit. Are you in NYC? I am in trouble. Looks like I'm going to be living in a van in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
I have never been in a Walmart in my life, and like it that way. I have, however, been to a few Targets and have to admit, it is worth going once and awhile to stock up on all the basics in one place.
Hate Wal-Mart. They are building one in my neighborhood. I will drive the three miles to go to Target. It's the customers, man. I used to work there and we once had a guy stopped (by the staff) from trying to pee in a corner just because he was too lazy to find a men's room and he didn't think anyone would notice or care. That just about did it for me. But most of the people I dealt with one level up from me were the banana candy of coworkers. No one was happy, everyone was broke, and no one was in the least bit human. It was horrific. If that makes me a snob, then show me where to line up for the facial tattoo.
As for the rest of it, I want some brownies now. Or chocolate chip cookies. Dammit. I have a whole bag of really good chocolate chips left over from holiday baking.
This does not explain why I bought my new iPod in a Circuit City that still smells like B.O., even after the holidays.
This reminds of the article I once read that equated the smell of pie (apple or pumpkin I think) baking made men feel amorous. I think it may have suggested one should be baking the pie when the man comes over and you could get that marriage proposal...hey wait, was that a Cosmo article?
I have always wondered why the Godiva counter is right next to the shoe department in Neiman Marcus.
I *want* that handbag.
Who the hell made a chocolate chip cookie candle..?
@Jeremy: The Walmarts where I live smell like cheap plastic.
Did this study include anything about how shopping makes you want to eat? Everytime I go to a mall I have to stop at Starbucks for biscotti.
@skinnybonejones: insomnia is what does it for me. 2 a.m., can't sleep, and suddenly the Apple website has my credit card in its clutches.
Not that I did that, um, last night.
@malabrigo: this one is close - [www.brightestcandle.com]
@broad: That's just standard issue hot gadget seduction there. No smell required, just cover flow browsing. Umf.
@titania1285: Yeah, but at Anthropologie, $500 would mean she bought like, 3 shirts then? Maybe one with some kind of folksy embroidery, another with "ethnic" beading, and a third one that has frayed hems and random lace inserts?
@Jeremy: Walmart sucks ass. I don't want to see lowest common denominator of our civilization IN FRONT OF ME IN LINE. And I mean all of them, not just a sampling. Target will have my devotion as long as they open register lanes as needed and keep knocking off Pottery Barn.
@Jeremy: I don't go to Walmart to meet people, so I don't give a shit who's in the store with me. I take my list, get in, get my stuff and get out.
I read somewhere, once, that some malls actually artificially pump in the smells of fast food (like pizza, fries) to lure people to the food courts.
I'm pretty sure the "mall" in the town I grew up in used to do this. It had a pizza place...once. Like, in 1990. Then the food court closed down. Then stores started to leave. And yet the whole place still smelled like fresh--but totally fake--pizza. It wasn't the residual odor of grease that remains when fast food particulate has saturated a structure, either.
Last I was there, the pizza scent was gone. Of course the structure is basically just a gigantic empty thing next to a Kmart now. Sigh. I am rural flight.
Most of the better Las Vegas casinos pump in fresh air with a flowery or citrusy smell. I bought a diffuser recently that smells just like the Bellagio! Mmm, gambling!
Here's my unscientific theory: the pastry smell makes you subconsciously aware that you want pastries, but lo, there are no pastries to be had. Your brain says "Must consume! Must consume!" so in lieu of of pastries you consume the nearest sweater/handbag/shoes. I base this on the anorexic girls I know who compensate for denial of food with indulgence of shopping sprees.