A Brooklyn supermarket is pumping the smell of tasty foods throughout the store as a way to entice customers into buying more food that we probably don't need. NetCost Market, which has stores in Brooklyn and Staten Island, installed "small, black wall-mounted" machines into its Sheepshead Bay store at 16th st and Gravesend Neck Road that pump out odors of "Smoky Bacon," "Rosemary Focaccia," and "Lindt Chocolate." "Because of the scents, I think fruit sales probably up 7 to 8 percent," a NetCost spokeswoman tells the Post. Heaven help us if these smells someday replace samples.
NetCost began using the technology, provided by Charlotte-based company ScentAir (who counts Coors and Bloomingdales among their clients), in May, and plans to install the machines in all of their locations. A marketing director for ScentAir tells the paper, "You can set the fragrance very low, or you can blast it. It's all according to what the customer wants." One such customer says, "It's subtle, but I definitely smelled the bacon in the meat department." If they wanted the supermarket to smell like bacon, couldn't they just cook a pan of bacon? No word on whether "hamburgers" or "Herald Square Subway" are among the fragrances.
