Money blog: The tricks big shops use to get you to spend more (2024)

By Emily Mee, news reporter

We've all been there. You have a bad day and you need a little pick-me-up - so you head straight to your favourite website to buy something new.

That hit of dopamine you get when buying something is what many businesses rely on - and no one seems to understand it better than fast fashion brands.

But not only is this hurting our wallets, it's also harming the planet.

In the final part of our psychology of shopping series, we spoke to fair fashion campaigner Venetia La Manna (@venetialamanna) - who advocates for a more sustainable approach to clothing - about the little tricks fast fashion companies use to get people to spend, spend, spend...

Always in a rush

Many of the techniques fashion companies use involve ensuring people feel rushed to make purchasing decisions.

Ms La Manna says websites and social media pages are set up to make them look "very immediate" so we "always feel like we have to buy something before it's gone" - meaning you're not able to sit with a purchase and think about whether you need it.

Fast fashion companies also keep an eye on trends and push out products as soon as possible to make sure people are "buying very, very quickly without necessarily much thought".

And the sense of urgency is not just limited to online stores.

Ms La Manna says physical clothes shops will make sure their floors are slippery "so you can almost whizz around with more ease".

Often they will also have loud music to encourage "shopping in a frenzy".

Knowing what you want

Fashion sites use "highly advanced" search engine optimisation to find out what kind of products their customers are searching for and push these items to them, Ms La Manna says.

They also work with popular online influencers and get them to post affiliate links - meaning if you want to look like your favourite influencer or celebrity, you can buy what they're wearing "in just a few clicks".

Ultimately, they are making things "very easy to buy" and often have shopfronts on popular social media sites like Instagram and TikTok.

Plus, there is the issue of affordability.

Many are driving their prices down so low that "it makes you feel like 'hey, why not' when it's cheaper than a sandwich or a coffee", Ms La Manna says.

Come inside and buy more

Physical shops use other techniques to entice customers to buy.

For example, Ms La Manna says the heat changes when you go into the shop so you're "invited into a warmer environment".

Shops are also set out in a specific way, often placing cheaper items near checkouts and easy outfit formulas near each other.

The dopamine hit

With lots going on in the world, we may be more susceptible to falling into the spending trap than ever.

"The world is really heavy and people are struggling. Buying fast fashion or buying stuff gives us a momentary hit of dopamine, and of course we need that - when we're suffering, when we're feeling low, [shopping] is an easy one to reach for," Ms La Manna says.

Despite practising "slow fashion" - trying to buy less and more consciously - for years, Ms La Manna says she still has moments where she feels that buying something would make her feel better.

But she says it's possible to get much-needed dopamine hits from elsewhere - including by being active in your community, or by taking your time to find something you really, really want (ideally secondhand!).

Why does it matter?

Aside from being bad for your wallet, Ms La Manna says overconsumption is also bad for the planet and for the garment workers making your clothes.

She says many big fashion companies don't pay their garment workers a fair living wage - with many unable to provide food for their families, living in poverty and lacking paid time off.

The overproduction of clothing is also harming communities in the global south who are left to deal with vast piles of unwanted items, she says.

The majority of clothes taken to charity shops or recycling bins don't end up being resold - instead they are shipped off largely to places in the global south, where communities are "left to deal with a problem that's not theirs".

For more information on slow fashion, Ms La Manna suggests checking out The Or Foundation, Remake and the Clean Clothes Campaign.

P Diddy has sold off his stake in the media company he founded more than a decade ago.

The rapper, whose real name is Sean Combs, released his shares of Revolt with the company saying the have been fully redeemed and retired.

Revolt has not disclosed how much Combs was paid for his stake in the hip-hop news and entertainment company, which he founded in 2013.

It also announced a new ownership structure that will give its employees an equity stake in the company.

The move comes after several lawsuits were filed against Combs, accusing him of sexual assault and rape.

In November, he was sued by R&B singer Cassie, who said he subjected her to a years-long abusive relationship that included beatings and rape.

Combs settled the lawsuit with Cassie, whose full name is Casandra Ventura, a few days after it was filed.

Three in five secondary school teachers and nearly 80% of primary school teachers are spending their own money on supporting students, according to new research.

A report by the National Foundation for Educational Research, based on a survey of 1,282 teachers and senior leaders, found a quarter of teachers had already spent £100 of their own cash on their pupils or school this academic year.

Some 79% of primary school teachers and 62% of secondary school educators reported spending their own money at some point.

And nearly one in five primary and 17% of secondary teachers said they were spending money on meeting pastoral needs such as providing food or clothes.

Jude Hillary, the NFER's co-head of UK policy and practice, said the report"clearly highlights the high level of need among young people".

She said teachers were "going above and beyond to meet pupils' pastoral needs using their personal funds" and the "unrecognised" support was coming at a time when staff themselves are facing their own cost pressures.

Tesco has started re-stocking its packs of a dozen eggs online, after lengthy supply issues forced them to stop selling them.

The supermarket had already re-started selling them in stores, but online shoppers had to buy two packs of six eggs if they wanted 12, costing them very slightly more.

The shortages began in the autumn of 2022 as farmers left the industry or pulled back on production due to rising costs.

An outbreak of bird flu last year also impacted the sector.

Customers of Loveholidays have had their travel plans thrown into chaos after the parent company of two of its partners unexpectedly went bust.

In a post on Facebook, the holiday firm said FTI Group, which owns YouTravel and Meeting Point, had filed for insolvency.

As a result, the accommodation and transfer arrangements of some travellers have been affected.

A "small number" of hotels have already started contacting Loveholiday travellers, asking them to pay for their rooms again.

In the comments of the post, one person said they had been "threatened to be removed by police" for refusing to pay again.

"We are supposed to go home Thursday evening and worried our transfers and flights might be affected because we are refusing to pay again," Scott Love wrote.

"Shambles this and has ruined our holiday for me, my partner and three children."

Several other people commented, asking the provider to tell them if their trip had been impacted.

Loveholidays said it was "working hard" to honour its customers bookings and "minimise disruption" to any holiday.

It also said it was "absolutely committed" to covering costs and was working with affected customers, and the hotels involved, to make sure that happens.

Those who are on holiday and need support have been advised to contact the holiday support team by calling the number on their booking documents.

"If you're travelling with us soon and are wondering if your holiday is affected: Please don't worry. There is nothing you need to do - our team is working hard to honour any impacted bookings with another partner," Loveholidays added.

Sky News has contacted the company for comment.

Chef Tom Brown has announced he is closing his high-end Hackney restaurant Cornerstone due to high costs of the tasting menu format and changing diner preferences.

The seafood-focused restaurant first opened in 2018 and earned a Michelin star in 2021.

In a statement, Brown said Cornerstone had been his "proudest moment" and his "home for the last six years", and added that his focus would now be on his nearby Pearly Queen site.

First Direct is ending its text message banking service after 25 years, according to a report.

An email seen by This Is Money said the service - which texts customers mini bank statements and alerts them to their balance dropping below a certain amount - will be stopped on 10 August.

First Direct told the outlet that customers could get "more detailed and up-to-date information" by logging onto its app or online banking.

Tesco has partnered with Virgin Red to offer Clubcard holders the chance to turn points into experiences.

Those signed up to the supermarket's loyalty scheme will get twice the points value when they turn points earned on their shopping into Virgin Points.

A bonus 5,000 points is available for anyone who signs up to auto-exchange all their Clubcard points to Virgin Points for the first time.

McDonald's has lost the EU trademark for "Big Mac" when it comes to chicken sandwiches after a long-running dispute with an Irish restaurant chain.

The European Court of Justice upheld a complaint from Galway-based Supermac's against the US fast food giant.

The trademark for the words "Big Mac" was initially registered with the EU International Property Office (EUIPO) in respect of meat, fish and chicken sandwiches as well as a range of restaurant services by McDonald's in 1996.

Generally, the rights of a holder to an EU trademark are revoked if it has not been put to genuine use within a continuous period of five years.

Supermac's argued McDonald's had insufficiently used the contested trademark in relation to "chicken sandwiches".

McDonald's and the EUIPO put forward examples of advertisem*nts and display boards relating to "Grand Big Mac Chickens".

However, the court found the evidence was not sufficient to prove McDonald's had used the contested trademark enough in relation to poultry products.

Supermac's complaint was upheld and McDonald's protection of the phrase for such purposes was overturned.

Subway is following in the steps of some of its fast-food rivals with the introduction of self-service kiosks and its own dedicated app.

Customers will be able to place orders via digital screens sent to the kitchen instead of making their way along the chain of ingredients.

The self-service kiosks will be in all UK stores before the end of the year,The Grocerreports.

The sandwich shop chain is also launching a new app which will enable online orders - and offer customers points towards its "Subway Rewards" loyalty scheme, it said.

The points can eventually be converted into "Subway Cash" to spend on menu items.

Dan Holm, digital leader at Subway, said: "As we think about Subway's future, we're doubling down on our global digital commitment to streamline and simplify the guest experience from start to finish."

Rishi Sunak's claim in last night's debate that Labour will raise everyone's taxes by £2,000 comes from a "dossier" published by the Tories last month, which purported to calculate their tax and spending plans.

The headline "finding" was that over the course of the next four years, Labour had roughly £59bn of spending plans but only £20bn of revenue-raising plans.

That leaves a £39bn hole. Divide that by the number of households in the country (18.4m) and you get a figure of just over £2,000.

Now, there are all sorts of objections to the way the Conservatives have carried out this exercise.

For one thing, they deployed a weapon Labour don't have: because they're the party of government, they were able to ask Treasury civil servants to cost some Labour policies.

Today there has been a backlash - including from the Treasury's permanent secretary himself - about the way the Tories have portrayed these sums.

The £2,000 figure isn't really a Treasury calculation or an "independent" one, as Mr Sunak called it last night. It's a Conservative figure - but it was put together in part with figures commissioned from civil servants.

Labour also says many of the policies in that Tory dossier won't cost half as much as the Conservatives claim.

Regardless, while £2,000 sounds like a big number, it's actually a cumulative total from four years. A far more representative figure to take from the dossier is £500 - the annual figure.

And while that's not to be sniffed at (if you believe it - which you probably shouldn't) it's far, far smaller than the tax rises we've all experienced under this Conservative government since 2019.

They amount, all told, to an average of around £3,000 a year per household or, if we grit our teeth and tot it up as the Tories did in their dossier, over £13,000 over the course of the parliament.

Which rather dwarfs that £2,000 figure.