Why Sales Exploit Our Brains

Sam outlines anchoring, scarcity, FOMO, and anticipation and how these layered triggers hijack decision-making.

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Inner Peace vs Retail Rage - How do shops design our experience to remove our decisions and make us to FOMO into all sorts of weird situations?

This episode peels back the slick banners and countdown timers to show the tiny psychological tricks that turn shoppers into hunters. Scarcity, anchoring, and anticipation aren’t marketing buzzwords — they’re brain hacks.

Retailers riff off ancient instincts: spot a rare fruit, grab it. Online, those instincts run on caffeine and fast clicks. The result? We chase status, reassurance, and an imagined better life via objects.

Three actionable takeaways:

Pause 24 hours before you buy to let impulse die.
Flag “true needs” vs “story purchases” in a list.

Reframe purchases as stories you’ll tell later.

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