Fake Scarcity

At my local grocery store today I noticed they were out of pie crusts.  My first thought was “don’t these idiots know they need to stock-up for last-minute Thanksgiving shoppers?” And then, a few minutes later, as I noticed 5 different display tables showing off prepared Thanksgiving pumpkin pies it struck me- these guys aren’t idiots at all.  This pie crust scarcity is designed to increase whole pie sales. A shopper who waits till the last minute (today) probably doesn’t have time to drive to another store.  In the process, the retailer has cleverly increased my $ spend.

Happy Thanksgiving!