I understand this is a fairly well studied phenomenon in retail, that empty shelves reduce customer spending.
Years ago when I worked at a big box home store, it was common policy for department heads to fill empty shelf space due to missing inventory with random nearby product.
I personally hate this, because it looks like someone left a mess or worse mislabeled something. But I’m also not sure I wouldn’t be more turned off by empty shelves.
thank you that is really insightful, while the article touched on that practice it didn’t explain why.
I could see how this helps the buyer’s psychology in other ways - empty shelves could look like a neglected store, which doesn’t speak freshness or quality.
If I didn't know the shop well and was looking for something particular (without knowing where), I'd much rather have something identifiable from a distance than scour printed labels on empty shelves.
