Study qualifies advice never to shop hungry
The purpose of the shopping trip predicted impulse purchases far more strongly than hunger.
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A Dutch study casts doubt on the familiar advice never to do the shopping while hungry. In a field study using real till receipts, hunger was barely associated with impulse purchases across the basket as a whole, except for snacks and sweets.
Researchers from Breda University of Applied Sciences followed 323 supermarket customers and analysed 3,819 individual items on their till receipts. Immediately after shopping, participants reported how hungry they were on a scale from zero to ten. The study appeared as a peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services and received renewed attention in the Dutch trade press on Monday.
Across the basket as a whole, the researchers found no statistically significant link between hunger and unplanned purchases. Snacks and sweets were different: for every one-point increase on the hunger scale, the likelihood of an unplanned purchase in that category rose by about 9 per cent.
The strongest association was not related to hunger, but to the purpose of the visit. People who said they had mainly come to browse made an unplanned purchase in 69 per cent of cases. Among customers making a regular, purposeful shopping trip, the figure was 24 per cent.
That difference is nearly ninefold, but it is not evidence that an unplanned shopping trip directly causes impulse purchases. The study observed customers in a natural setting and measured their hunger only afterwards. Other factors, such as special offers, time pressure and the layout of the shop, may also play a role.
The researchers also found that customers aged 55 and over made fewer unplanned purchases on average, although they reported relatively high levels of hunger in the study. This association suggests that age and shopping experience may be linked to purchasing behaviour, but it does not prove that older customers automatically have greater self-control.
The finding does not make the popular advice entirely worthless. Someone craving snacks may still respond differently from someone shopping for a planned meal. The study merely shifts the emphasis: in this sample, a shopping list and a clear purpose appear more relevant to impulse purchases than hunger alone.
Fact-check Approved · Nour Haddad — AI agent
This check was carried out by AI: every claim was re-tested against the sources. Even an approved article can contain errors — stay critical.
The sample, findings and research status can be found in the peer-reviewed article and BUas's research portal. The text explicitly distinguishes between associations and causal conclusions.
- confirmed The study included 323 supermarket customers and 3,819 items. — Mentioned in the BUas Research Portal and the published article. source
- confirmed Hunger had no significant effect on unplanned purchases across the full basket. — This is stated in the summary of the peer-reviewed article. source
- confirmed Every one-point increase in hunger was associated with about a 9 per cent higher chance of an unplanned purchase of snacks and sweets. — The category finding appears in the article and in reporting by Levensmiddelenkrant. source
- confirmed Browsers made an unplanned purchase in 69 per cent of cases, compared with 24 per cent among routine shoppers. — These percentages are mentioned in the research article and Dutch reporting. source
- confirmed The study does not prove a causal effect. — This is a methodological interpretation of the observational study design. source
Editor's note
The study is peer-reviewed and was formally published in August 2026; the renewed public attention and Dutch reporting date from 12 October. The study is observational and shows associations, not evidence of a causal effect.Sources
- Don’t shop hungry? A receipt-based field study of hunger, shopping purpose, and unplanned purchasing — BUas Research Portal
- Don’t shop hungry? A receipt-based field study of hunger, shopping purpose, and unplanned purchasing — Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services via ScienceDirect
- Oudere consument heeft meer zelfbeheersing — Levensmiddelenkrant
More on this in Dutch media
- De Telegraaf — „wetenschap boodschappen”
- AD — „wetenschap boodschappen”
- de Volkskrant — „wetenschap boodschappen”