What does your shopping list look like?

At the beginning of the school year, I subscribed to The Economist in an attempt to become more knowledgable. Admittingly, I have only read the articles that have anything to do with retail and science & technology. So in last week's issue I came across an interesting article called Signs of the times.

The abridged version is that retailers now put flat panel displays which show a constantly rotating series of advertisements, mixed with news and entertainment in "high traffic" parts of the shops. Marketers are loving this way of advertising because according to the Point of Purchase Advertising International, an independent trade association, more than 70% of purchasing decisions are made in shops. Most people, after all, write "beer" or "shampoo" on their shopping lists, rather than specifying particular brands.

I found this interesting because well, I have never even thought about the psychology of shopping lists before. For me if I'm listing out beauty products, I always specify which brand and if necessary, which product. For example, in my most recent shopping list, I wrote "Head & Shoulder shampoo", and in one of last summer's said "Lancome Hypnose". I can't seem to buy beauty products without doing crazy research and thinking beforehand, which is probably why I always know exactly which products I want before venturing shops.

One of my friends tells me that she writes down the product type she's planning to buy, such as "shampoo", and usually knows which brand she's planning to buy in mind. So I'm curious, what do you put on your shopping lists?