From cows mooing in the milk aisle to price changes every hour - the tricks supermarkets are plotting to get you to spend more

Updated: 06:48 EDT, 16 April 2026

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Imagine you’re at the supermarket on a Friday evening, holding up a chilled bottle of rosé and wondering whether you can afford this extra luxury for the weekend.

Suddenly the electronic price tag on the shelf flickers – and before your very eyes the price of that £15 bottle drops to £12.

You eagerly put it into a trolley convinced you have just bagged a bargain.

Yet what has really happened is you have been seduced by dynamic pricing – the latest retail trick designed to make you spend more.

Shoppers are set to be bombarded with fresh tricks to make us raise our spending over the next few years as retailers adopt the latest technologies.

Here, retail experts reveal what could be coming our way. Armed with their secrets you will hopefully be less likely to fall for their cunning new ploys...

Devious: Shoppers are set to be bombarded with fresh tricks to make us raise our spending over the next few years as retailers adopt the latest technologies

Dynamic pricing

This is where the cost of groceries can change by the minute thanks to computer-controlled digital price labels, which react to our shopping habits.

The technology is already used on shopping websites such as Amazon, but supermarkets such as the Co-op are now trialling it in 700 stores nationwide.

Morrisons, Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda are also looking at digital labels – which could change prices in line with supply, demand, day, time, how busy the shop is – even the weather, because all impact spending habits.

The Bank of England believes such ‘market-responsive pricing tools’ could become widespread – with as many as one in three companies adopting them in the next year.

Richard Hyman, a retail analyst, says: ‘Their impact may be surprising. For example, it may suit a shop to be quieter at certain times of the day to sort stock so prices might not simply fall when there is less demand.

'It is easy to think we might be manipulated by a growth in technology but it could work in our favour with shops competing on price.’

As retailers learn and respond to shopping habits, they may fine-tune their pricing accordingly.

For example, the price of that expensive bottle of wine could be lowered on a Friday evening as this is when people are vulnerable to splashing out as they look forward to enjoying their weekend.

Trolley handles

The traditional shopping trolley has a horizontal bar, but research by Bayes Business School in London suggests that, by adding looped parallel handles either side, shopping is more enjoyable – and could prompt you to spend 25 per cent more.

The research, which involved monitoring 2,359 shoppers over a three-day period – with half having traditional handles and the others with the adapted design – showed how the modification seemed to encourage shoppers to buy more. It supported a psychology theory about triceps versus biceps activation.

Consumer psychologist Nisa Bayindir explained: ‘The use of triceps when pushing a trolley is associated with a sense of rejection.

'By holding a couple of handles at the side of the trolleys, with a pushing motion that works like a wheelbarrow, you activate bicep muscles as you pull towards your body. This is a positive feeling associated with things you like.’

Tesco and Waitrose have been trialling lighter plastic trolleys in Sheffield and London over the past year, making pushing a trolley seem less of a chore.

Co-author of the Bayes Business School report, Professor Zachary Estes, said: ‘It is shocking to find making a small change to the position of handles can have such a large impact on shoppers’ spending – and flexing our shopping muscles.’

Pheromones

There is nothing new about shops using attractive smells, such as freshly baked bread, to encourage you to spend money.

But the use of synthetic human pheromones could be the next step – so you fall in love with the shop.

Pheromones are chemical signals we secrete as an invisible form of communication, offering information about sexual attraction, dangerous situations and marking territory.

Supermarkets are fully aware of this and could soon use them to attract you to them and keep you loyal.

The Canadian company Enhanced Air Technologies has explored ways of producing synthetic human pheromones for shops to stimulate sales.

It states: ‘The compound does not cause consumers to get into a spending frenzy so much as cause them to feel at ease in an environment and receptive to sales messages.’

Such pheromones are now being trialled to lure insects away from foods kept in warehouses before going to supermarkets, as companies increasingly search for eco-friendly alternatives to pesticide sprays.

With these trials proving successful at combatting insects that might otherwise cost the industry money in lost fruit and vegetables, supermarkets are now believed to be looking at new ways to make the most of these non-toxic chemicals.

David Sables, chief executive of Sentinel Management Consultants – which helps brands supply stores, says: ‘Supermarkets want your emotions to be charged with pheromones that make you feel good.

'They want your loyalty and will often focus on destination categories – such as the wine or bakery section.

‘Alluring soft lighting, attractive smells and good ambience all encourage loyalty, so you keep coming back for more.’

Farm noises

We are used to listening to the sound of Muzak – piped ‘elevator music’ designed to calm and help us enjoy our shopping experience.

But experts believe animal sounds echoing through the shopping aisles could be next.

The noise of cows mooing is one of the latest tricks being used to help sell fresh milk in supermarkets – and, if it is successful, we might hear hens clucking by the egg section and possibly even pigs oinking where bacon is sold.

Bayindir says: ‘Moo sounds coming from a machine selling milk could be heard in my local branch of Marks & Spencer in Barnet, north London, the other day.

'The milk vending machine was being used to promote milk – and it certainly seemed to work, particularly attracting children.

‘With the marketing appeal of locally sourced produce and organic food, an increase in farmyard sounds from local farms can make us feel closer to the produce and encourage us to spend more.’

Farmyard soundtrack: The noise of cows mooing is one of the latest tricks being used to help sell fresh milk in supermarkets

The fresh milk vending machines We Think Happier Cows Make The Tastiest Milk at M&S encourage users to buy milk by pressing a sound button when purchasing a one-litre bottle of milk, so the sale is accompanied by a moo. There is also a Happy Chickens Lay Happy Eggs! machine.

Yet pop music still remains favourite for 43 per cent of people in supermarkets, according to research by music licence provider PPL PRS.

However, up to half of shoppers prefer the soothing sounds of classical music instead.

Marianne Rizkallah, music therapist for PPL PRS, says: ‘If you enter an environment that is soundtracked by a catchy beat or familiar tune, you may feel happier. If we feel good, we are more inclined to treat ourselves.’