Shopper 46

"Despite our best intentions, we buy food impulsively and irrationally," writes Kate Stein in a New York Times op-ed essay (4/16/09). Kate makes this observation after watching "Shopper 46" make a purchase decision as part of Cornell University study of "thousands of supermarket patrons in situ from Whole Foods to Safeway." Armed with a stop watch, Kate spies "from behind a cereal display" and watches Shopper 46 "contemplating bananas for four minutes and 43 seconds."

It's great work if you can get it. Anyway, after picking out a bunch "with minimal brown spots," Shopper 46 "changes her mind" and "exits the produce department with a bargain tub of banana pudding instead." Kate's take: "We go to the supermarket resolved to watch our pennies and choose healthful foods. But we become disoriented when we're confronted with thousands of products and brands. So we end up spending $3.49 on an accidental bag of Doritos, $1.99 on M&M's."

It's not only a waste of money, says Kate, but on empty calories to boot. Her other observation is that "shoppers who took the longest, examining packages, stopping at whatever caught their eye, invariably spent more money. They tumbled stray, often unhealthy items into their baskets, and later, when questioned, couldn't cite a reason for the purchases." Kate's advice: "If it wasn't indelibly marked on your grocery list, control your insticts and move on quickly." Sounds like nightmare for shopper marketing to me. What do you think?