grocery bags: T R I C K Y or meaningless?

In an article titled "How Grocery Bags Manipulate Your Mind," by the Harvard Business School, we discover that maybe grocery bags do more than just provide a place to hold your groceries. I personally have never given much thought on the power of a bag before, but now I see why it is important. Do you think the type of grocery bag you use determines your likeliness to purchase ice cream??


     



In a study done by Carmen Noble, senior editor of Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, experiments were conducted to show a relationship between customers bringing their own reuseable grocery bags and the types of food they chose to purchase. Noble discovered that there is a high correlation between bringing your own reuseable bag and purchasing organic foods and indulgent items such as ice cream and cookies. The fact that people who use reuseable bags are more likely to purchase organic food makes sense because they obviously care about the environment and good healthy, however the ice cream is a different story. It seems strange that the same person who buys organic foods is also very likely to purchase unhealthy "snack" foods. The reason is because when people bring their own bag, they feel they are doing something good and shall be rewarded, in this case with indulgent items.

It turns out there is a high chance that you will buy ice cream (or something else indulgent) next time you go to the grocery store if you bring your own bag willingly. We make subconcious choices every single day as consumers and I bet you never thought this is one that people make. It seems a little far fetched, but hey, stranger things have happened.

To read the details of the experiment go to:
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/how-grocery-bags-manipulate-your-mind