WASHINGTON -- The Center for Science in the Public Interest is again going after impulse purchases at the checkout counter. Earlier this year, the nonprofit consumer watchdog and health and food safety advocacy group--known for its crusades against movie theater popcorn, soda, energy drinks and other snacks it labels unhealthy--launched an informal social media campaign decrying the "temptation at the checkout."
Now it has released a study of checkout aisles at a wide variety of food and non-food retailers, saying that 90% of food options for sale were for candy, energy bars, chips, cookies and other snack foods, and 60% of the beverage options were for soda and other sweetened beverages.
Researchers characterized 8% of food items as "healthier," and 2% of foods as actually "healthy," such as nuts and fruit. Their assessment of drinks for sale at standard checkout aisles revealed that 19% were water, 15% were diet soft drinks, 5% were ground coffee and tea bags, less than 1% were juice and none was milk.
The organization analyzed checkout aisles at 30 retailers representing 14 different store types in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, including supermarkets, convenience stores, dollar stores, drug stores and non-grocery stores.
The majority (86%) of non-food stores in the study carried foods or beverages at checkout. For instance, a Bed, Bath, & Beyond outlet offered Nestlé Chunky bars and large bags of Milky Ways at a checkout aisle. An Old Navy displayed Air Heads, Pop Rocks and Mentos at checkout. A Barnes & Noble outlet had an elaborate display of boxed Godiva chocolates. Most non-food retailers carried more gift cards, personal care items, batteries and other merchandise than food.
"Americans have a hard enough time maintaining healthy weights without retailers sabotaging their efforts," said nutrition policy director Margo G. Wootan. "It's bad enough that supermarkets display soda and chips to prompt unplanned purchases at checkout. But why are so many stores pushing candy bars on people buying towels, toys or kids' clothes?"
Of the 21 non-food retailers that the study looked at, only RadioShack, Home Depot [Editor's Note: My local Home Depot does sell beverages, candy and snacks at checkout] and Modell's sporting goods store did not sell any foods or beverages at checkout. Costco was the only food store in the study that that did not display any foods or drinks at checkout.
"In this age of diabetes and obesity, it's unethical for retailers to push people to buy and consume extra calories that will harm their health," said senior nutrition policy counsel Jessica Almy. "Food stores should set nutrition standards for the foods at checkout and non-food retailers should get out of the junk-food business altogether."
Stores by channel included:
- Grocery: Giant Foods, Harris Teeter, Trader Joe's, Safeway, Whole Foods.
- Supercenter/Warehouse: Costco, Target, Walmart.
- Drug Store: CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens.
- Convenience Store/Gas Station: 7-Eleven, BP, Shell.
- Dollar Store: Dollar Tree, Five Below.
- Office Supply: Office Depot, Staples.
- Home/Bath: Bed Bath & Beyond.
- Clothing: Old Navy, T.J. Maxx.
- Electronics: Best Buy, RadioShack.
- Sporting Goods: City Sports, Modell's.
- Home Improvement/Hardware: Ace, Home Depot.
- Bookstore: Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million.
For convenience stores, food made up 62% of the checkout offering, beverages 12% and non-food merchandise 26%; the average number of facings per checkout was 162.
Click here to view the full study.
[Editor's Note: CSP Daily News does not necessarily endorse the opinions, assertions, conclusions or recommendations of any organization that it covers as news.]
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.