Market psychology

I have never been much of a capitalist, but starting a small business has tended to focus my attention on things like money and sales. The most interesting part is watching people at market make decisions about what to buy. Here are some observations that are probably obvious to anyone who has experience in sales or marketing, but are new to me:

A. No one will ever buy the last anything. I could have the most beautiful head of lettuce sitting there, but if it is the last one in the lettuce tray, everyone passes it over, subconsciously thinking there must be something wrong with the one head no one else wanted.

B. If you can get two people, or better yet two groups of people, to stop at your stand, other people start to think a crowd is forming, and they come over to see what people are buying. From there, the crowd kind of builds on itself, until you have people waiting in line. Once you have a line formed, people get real interested, and they all want to come over. But you need to be careful -- if the line gets too long, people will stop coming over, and they will peel away from the line, and pretty soon you are all by yourself again, trying to get two people, or better yet two groups of people, to stop.

C. One of the most surprising things I have noticed is that if a total stranger is buying something, people will consider buying that same item, even if they hadn't really considered buying it before. For example, on Saturday a lady stopped and was asking about the salad turnips. My sale radar predicted that she was not going to buy anything, but as I was explaining to her about the salad turnips, I saw one of my regular turnip customers enter the market and make a bee line for my stand. Once he got there, I announced him as a regular turnip purchaser to the potential turnip customer. He liked being remembered as a regular, and she became convinced that there must be something to these turnips if this total stranger liked them. They both bought two bunches. Damn, but I am good sometimes!

But I guess my point is what does it matter what a total stranger thinks? Why does a line attract people? You would think no one would like to wait in line. And who cares if it is the last one -- it is still a perfectly good head of lettuce? Yet I am sure I behave in exactly the same way when I am a consumer. It is just that I don't see these dynamics at work until I am trying to do the selling.