How Ikea uses food to trick you into spending

JUNE 03, 2015
News.com.au
HAVE you ever wondered why the food at Ikea is so cheap?
No, it’s not because they want to apologise for making you assemble your own furniture.
A recent discussion on question-and-answer site Quora has revealed some of the best mind tricks restaurants use to get customers to pay more.
Surprisingly, Ikea, which you wouldn’t think of as a traditional restaurant and more of a Swedish relationship minefield, rates at the top for tricky business.
Chris Spear, a chef who previously worked at an Ikea food-service operation, explained that the whole purpose of the quick-service restaurants is to “reinforce their low price profile” on items in the rest of the store, even if it means selling food at a loss.
“You have no idea how much a couch costs. You see one you like for $599. Is that a good price? You have no idea because you’ve never bought a couch before,” he explained.
“But, you can get a full meal that’s only $3.99. You do know that food is much more expensive elsewhere. Then, on the way out, you see that they have hot dogs for 50 cents, as well as soda and cinnamon buns. Why do they have American items at the Swedish grocery store? Because you can identify with those items. We can pretty much agree that 50 cents is the best price you will find for a hot dog anywhere.”
It’s true: in Australian Ikea stores, you can buy a full English breakfast of bacon, tomato, eggs, hash brown and sausage for $3.49 — less than a price of a coffee in most places.
“Their policy is to be the absolute lowest price on that item within a 30-mile radius, even if it means selling at a loss,” Mr Spear wrote.
“They’re reinforcing the low-price profile of the store. So, they take a hit on the food, but just sold you $1,000 in furniture. It’s the same thing other stores do with loss leaders to get you in the door, but I thought it was interesting to use food to sell furniture and housewares.”
As others point out, even if people come in just to eat the cheap food without buying any furniture, Ikea doesn’t really care.
“Ikea would be delighted to have you show up, eat, and leave. Why? Because at some point you will need furniture or other household items,” wrote user Mark Binfield.
“And if you’ll be in Ikea anyway because you’re in the habit of buying their underpriced food, then naturally you’ll tend to buy your furniture from them too. After all, it’s a familiar place, and you have positive feelings about them, and it’s convenient.”
And because the price points of furniture and food are so far apart, Ikea can afford to sell a lot of underpriced food for even a modest increase in furniture sales, he added.
Here are some other mind tricks commonly used by restaurants to get customers to pay more, suggested by Quora users:

IMAGINATIVE LANGUAGE
Descriptive labels such as “handcrafted, triple-basted, slow-cooked, golden-brown, hand-selected, fresh from the oven” have been found to increase sales by as much as 27 per cent.
USING PHOTOGRAPHS
Restaurants use pictures to encourage diners to purchase specific items. Attractive pictures of specific menu items tend to increase sales by as much as 30 per cent.
NO DOLLAR SIGNS
Research has found people spend more when they can’t see dollar signs next to all those numbers on the menu. People don’t like to be reminded that they’re spending money.
EXPENSIVE DECOYS
In case you are thinking about money, very expensive menu items are used as “decoys” to draw you to the cheaper items, which will naturally look more reasonable in comparison.
REGISTER TIPPING
As banks phase out traditional credit card signatures, many restaurants now use subtle pressure by inviting you to select the tip amount on the machine while you pay at the register.