Here’s a prime target for Dr. Obvious! A new Study from Cambridge University says removing Sweets and Salty snacks from the immediate vicinity of the checkout line in supermarkets and convenience stores reduces ‘the amount purchased to take home’. Have these people never studied food marketing strategies?
Typical impulse buying display at a Convenience Store: Looks familiar…
What they did…
Researchers first looked at how purchases of less healthy common checkout foods brought home changed following the implementation policies banning the display of Junk Foods at checkouts. They used data from over 30,000 UK households from 12 months before to 12 months after implementation.
Next, they looked at data from 7,500 shoppers who recorded food bought and eaten ‘on-the-go’ during 2016-17 from supermarkets with and without checkout food policies.
What they reported…
The study found that 17 percent fewer small packages of sugary confectionary, chocolate and potato crisps were bought and taken home from supermarkets immediately after introducing a checkout food policy. Even more dramatically, 76 percent fewer snacks were bought and eaten ‘on-the-go’ from supermarkets with checkout food policies compared to those without. And, after a year, shoppers were still purchasing over 15 percent fewer of the items compared to when no policy was in place.
Researchers also found that on-the-go purchases are often impulsive and can be the result of children pestering their parents. Really?
Their takeaway…
“It may seem obvious that removing unhealthy food options from the checkout would reduce the amount that people buy, but it is evidence such as this that helps build the case for government interventions to improve unhealthy behaviours,” says Dr. Jean Adams from the Centre for Diet and Activity Research at the University of Cambridge. “One such intervention might be to introduce nutritional standards for checkout food as suggested in the Government’s recent Childhood Obesity Plan. Such a government-led policy might prove attractive to supermarkets as it would provide a level playing field across the sector.”
Dr. Obvious’ take…
Please!
I grew up in a time when TV commercials for Sugary Cereals, Cookies, Cakes, Chocolate Confections and Salty Snacks openly urged kids to, “tell Mommy and Daddy to get you some today!”
The idea of placing such Junk Food adjacent to the checkout is a tried and true ‘rule’ of food store marketing practice. The term ‘impulse buying’ was coined to name the behaviour it’s supposed to encourage.
THEY PUT JUNK FOOD AT THE CHECKOUT ON PURPOSE!
What these intrepid Cambridge U. researchers just ‘discovered’ has been known by food store managers for decades.
The Dr.’s takeaway…
One thing I was surprised about, in their report, was that a number of major UK food store chains have already instituted, voluntarily, policies banning Junk Food at the checkout. Bully for them. But many supermarket managers here in North America would rather stab themselves in the hand than give up impulse marketing.
And, if you do outlaw impulse marketing of Junk Food, what do the store people place next to the cash register? Probably nothing. But it’s too good an opportunity to squeeze another buck or two out of their customers. Fresh Fruits and Veggies? Ridiculous. Household cleaners? Nonsense. Fresh Cut Flowers and Flashlight Batteries do not a profit centre make. Impulse marketing just doesn’t work the same for any other kind of product.
A ban on impulse marketing of Junk Food in Britain may work in the UK since some major retailers have already signed on to the policy without being forced to. And, if the playing field is level, with no retailers doing impulse marketing of Junk Food, maybe that’s not so bad. But I guarantee the response of retailers in North America will be very different, especially if such a ban becomes law. I want to know what food retailers will come up to make up for lost impulse sales.
Thank you, Doctor Obvious.
~ Maggie J.