Have you ever gone to the grocery store intending to purchase a select number of items, only to walk out 30 minutes later a whole lot more than you intended? Why do we do that? Why can’t we stick to our list? Now, I’ve heard children and husbands blamed for sneaking things into the cart. But that doesn’t explain how it happens when just the wife goes in.
Grocery stores have been caught red handed, manipulating the shopper. I cannot say that they all do it but enough do it that their tricks have been discovered. Grocers have tapped into the psychology of the grocery shopper, knowing exactly what would appeal to them and setting them up for the purchase.
For instance, have you ever seen a label advertising two cans of something for $5? You think this is a great deal because they put the “sale” price in large letters with a sunburst around it. They might call it “The Deal of the Week” or “The Savvy Shopper.” Look a little more carefully. You might get one can – the only can you needed – for $2.50.
Another trick that is used is putting items from different aisles together to show you what you need. Ice cream is in the frozen food section, right? Chocolate syrup doesn’t need to be nor all the other toppings. In the name of convenience, the items are placed near each other, suggesting that your bowl of ice cream isn’t nearly as good without the extra products.
Costco and Sam’s Club know how to get you to buy. They offer free samples! I have to admit, I look forward to a trip to these places and we have purchased items just because we got to sample them and liked them. That’s a super smart tactic to get people to purchase things they weren’t coming to buy.
One other obvious smooth move that most grocery stores have in common is that they put the milk in the back corner. Why is that? The purpose should seem clear. Look at all the items you must walk past just to get the milk. You might see something along the way that becomes an impulse purchase, especially if it’s in a center aisle or endcap.
That’s some pretty smart maneuvering!
I want to suggest something very cautiously and we dare not stretch the analogy too far. There is a sense in which Christians can “entice” the lost person to at least consider Christ and Christianity. How do they do that?
We’ve all heard the old saying, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” That’s kind of true. While we can’t make them drink, we can certainly make them thirsty. How is that accomplished?
With a salt block!
Jesus said in Matthew 5:13, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”
Commentator Albert Barnes writes, “Salt renders food pleasant and palatable, and preserves from putrefaction. So Christians, by their lives and instructions, are to keep the world from entire moral corruption. By bringing down the blessing of God in answer to their prayers, and by their influence and example, they save the world from universal vice and crime.”
Salt also generates thirst. Take a moment and really think about each item I mention. Popcorn. Crackers. Ham. Pretzels. The mere mention of those words causes our salivary glands to activate. Some are anxious to end this devotional so that they can get a drink of water.
So our lives ought to generate a thirst in the lost that can only be quenched by the Living Water, Jesus Christ. We are not trying to deceive or entrap someone. What we have to 
offer is Jesus Christ and we are trying to show them by our lives and example how much we needed Him and that they do, too.
Are we making anyone thirsty, showing them that their life is dry and parched and demonstrating what a life can be that is saturated in the goodness of the salvation of the Lord? Colossians 4:6 gives us a way to put this into action. Never miss the opportunity! “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”
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