Lidl customers have been warned about a clever trick the store uses to encourage shoppers to spend more money.

While most supermarkets put the price tag of products underneath the item, Lidl appears to be bucking the trend. Roo Dhissou, a former assistant manager at a Lidl store says this is known as "eye level is buy level."

Speaking on 24 Hours in Lidl on Netflix, she said: "So the idea is that you look at the product and look above and see how much it costs." However, Dr Amna Khan, a retail expert, says shoppers still naturally look at the price below the product they're buying.

She explained: "If you went into a traditional supermarket where do you automatically look? You look beneath it for the price, you wouldn't look above it. So automatically when you look underneath it, that's the price that you think it's going to be."

Lidl puts its prices above the product. (
Image:
Manchester Family / MEN)

This, the Netflix documentary says, means a casual Lidl shopper may think they are about to grab a bargain, but actually end up paying more than they first expected when they get to the till.

Lidl recently announced a big change in how it displays prices across its stores. It said it will swap its paper tags for electric displays in a bid to cut down on carbon.

According to the retailer, this will save 206 tonnes of carbon annually through paper and packaging reductions and will mean its employees will be able to focus more on keeping shelves stocked rather than updating paper shelf edge labels.

The retailer, which has over 900 stores in the United Kingdom, originally trialled the Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) in 35 stores. It says it will roll-out the change at all of its stores "in the coming months".

24 Hours in Lidl is available to watch now on Netflix.