Many companies know that a lot of people can’t go without many staples in life i.e., dairy products, self-care products or even products that many people have accustomed themselves to buying every day or even every week. Weather that be an iced coffee every Tuesday or Thursday that you go into the office or buying that carton of eggs and milk because you ran out yesterday or it’s a part of your shopping list every week.

Routine Shopping occurs in everyone’s life. It is that carton of milk you get every 5 days like it’s clock work. It is considered to be a programmed behavior because there is little thought behind making a decision to purchase that specific item. A lot of times they can be considered low-cost items, but mainly are considered essential items that are used daily which is why it can be so routine to buy them.

Impulsive Shopping can be similar to routine shopping in the way where there is little thought behind making a decision, but the cost can be more detrimental, or it can just not be an essential. Think of items that are put at the end of your shopping trip like candy, drinks other treats. They are put there in hopes to trigger your urge to be spontaneous and buy something you may be craving at the time.

So… What’s the deal?

Because companies know our behavior choices when it comes to buying essentials or even when making spontaneous purchases, they’re able to take advantage of that. Take a look at our routine shopping, these are essential items that we would much rather prefer to live our lives with than without but that means they have all the control. They can choose the price and that customer will have no choice but purchase because it’s needed in their daily routine. This was proven this year during the 2023 Bird Flu outbreak where it led to high egg prices. Eggs quickly turned into a routine shopping to what ended up feeling like an impulsive buy because of how expensive they were.