Healthier choices in a supermarket

Abstract

Supermarkets are potential sites for collaboration between the health sector, food industry and the sales business in health promotion work. In order to establish the possibility of co‐operation between the municipal food control authority and the retail stores, an intervention project was started in one supermarket in Finland. The aim of the project was to encourage the supermarket to take health aspects, especially related to salt and saturated fat, into consideration in their marketing and to find out how the customers react to this project. The intervention was designed as a step‐wise programme with gradually increasing intervention. During the intervention period 600 customers were interviewed. The awareness of the campaign rose steadily up to over 50 percent during the last phase. The reporting of the local newspaper and radio seemed particularly to increase the customers’ awareness. Both the customers and the supermarket workers had a very positive attitude towards the project throughout the intervention. The direct impact of the intervention on reported purchase behaviour was small but the study showed that health promotion work in co‐operation between food control and supermarkets does work. The project could serve as a model for similar larger health promotion projects and might inspire other supermarkets to help their customers make healthier choices.

Investigating business outcomes of healthy food retail strategies: A systematic scoping review

“…The most frequently reported outcomes were customer level of satisfaction with the healthy food retail strategy (n = 34)23,56,57,63,66,72,78,79,83,88,94,95,98,100,101,103,107,108,112,123,124,126,127,130,133,136,137,140,142,144,146,152,154,157 and customer store satisfaction (n = 14), which were frequently measured within the same study (see Figure ). Customer perspectives were almost exclusively measured using customer surveys . Satisfaction measures either explicitly rated the strategy itself, elements of the store relevant to the strategy, or the store overall .…”

“…The majority of studies were conducted in the United States (n = 56) or Canada (n = 13) . Studies encompassed food service (n = 44), grocery (n = 56), and mixed (n = 7) retail settings including cafeterias (n = 24), full service restaurants (n = 18), corner stores and/or grocery stores (n = 19), supermarkets (n = 16), vending machines (n = 13), quick‐service restaurants (n = 13), and cafés (n = 5) . Approximately half of thes...…”

“…Six initiatives were retailer‐led, 29 were the result of partnerships, and 41 were researcher‐led, with the remainder government‐, industry‐, or health organization‐led. More than half of the included studies (n = 66) identified one or more business outcomes in the primary aim of the study.…”

Suggestions for Supporting a Weight Management Policy at Grocery Stores

“…Labels must be simple using bigger letters [4,7,16,32]. Consumers also require simple product layouts [4,33] with specific shelf labelling arrangements [4,28,32,33] as well as appreciate health-oriented services provided by retailers [4,13,34].…”

“…Consumers will require guidance and services supported by retailers [4,7,13]. Enormous and versatile product assortments at groceries possess several challenges to consumer's daily life [4,7,14,15].…”