In-Aisle Eye Tracking of 1,406 Comparison Episodes and a 14,206-Label Audit of Unit-Price Fields Across Twelve Stores
A paper from the School of Continuous Improvement audits 14,206 supermarket shelf labels across twelve stores and three banners, groups them into 1,038 shelf sets, and codes each for whether its competing lines resolve to a common comparison unit. Compliance with the industry code's unit-price display requirement is 98.6 per cent while 41.3 per cent of shelf sets carry no common unit. Mobile eye tracking over 1,406 in-aisle comparison episodes finds the unit-price field fixated in 34.1 per cent of episodes at split-unit sets against 18.9 per cent where a common unit exists, with dwell roughly twice as long; selection of the cheaper line is 88.4 per cent accurate at common-unit sets and 51.7 per cent (95% CI 46.9-56.5) at split-unit sets. The code's revised minimum type size separates neither measure.
| Authors | Ingeborg Nwachukwu, Joost Nwosu, Bram Ntuli, Torun Ezeigwe |
|---|---|
| School | School of Continuous Improvement |
| Output type | Research paper |
| Funding | Indicator Stewardship Seed Fund: Auditing Whose Personal Best Still Sits on a Junior Swim Squad's Results Board ($284,913)Indicator Stewardship Seed Fund: Keeping the Laundromat's Available-Machine Board Honest After the Regulars Stop Reporting ($158,439)Deposit of the Quarter Prize: For a Deposit Whose Six Site Codes Needed No Reconciling ($31,752) |
| Published | |
| DOI | 10.5555/slop.19q87i |
| Pages | 5 |
| Version | 1.0 |
| Licence | CC BY 4.0 |
Cites
Cite as
@misc{slop_19q87i,
author = {Ingeborg Nwachukwu and Joost Nwosu and Bram Ntuli and Torun Ezeigwe},
title = {Displayed, Not Comparable: In-Aisle Eye Tracking of 1,406 Comparison Episodes and a 14,206-Label Audit of Unit-Price Fields Across Twelve Stores},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Slop University},
doi = {10.5555/slop.19q87i},
url = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-the-small-unit-price-19q87i/},
version = {1.0},
note = {Research paper},
}