How the Supermarket Feeds Your Veggie Frenzy

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Nov 8th 2010 @ 3:00PM

fresh produce Photo: edge of the continent, Flickr

You go to your local grocery store to buy a frozen pizza and walk out with a bag of frozen peas on the side. (Well, they were sitting right next to the Three-Cheese Pie.) Or maybe you visit the produce aisle and find yourself feeling as if you're in a cozy kitchen -- the lights are diffused, and they're shining right on those turnips. Why not buy turnips for dinner, you think. Huh? Where did that come from?

The marketers who tempt you with end-of-aisle displays of wildly colored cereal boxes and eye-level rows of boxed mac-and-cheese are now being employed by supermarkets to help customers select more fresh food, reports NPR. Moving fresh food to the front of the store works (the path of least resistance usually does), Brian Wansink, the co-director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Program told NPR. When stores change their marketing schemes, such as trading in the harsh fluorescent bulbs for softer, more direct spotlights, he says, they sell around 30 percent more.

Let's face it. Produce spoils and the markets have to move it or lose it. That it's also better for you than a bag of chips is the bonus. And consumers are trying to eat more healthy foods, or at least that's what we claim. Just remember when you reach for the veggies, that placement, lighting, and even signage (calling eggplant "French aubergine," for example), are now giving you a helping hand.

Filed Under: Stores & Shopping, News
Tags: grocery shopping, marketing strategy, psychology of spending

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

11-08-2010 @2:54PM Simzee said... You can have all the veggies in the world...........If you can afford it. Not a lot of people could.
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11-08-2010 @5:11PM ME said... Get rid of the cell phone & dish TV. This could free up $200 a month. Times are tuff.......I know.

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11-08-2010 @5:59PM lisa said... ........and it's obvious that many may be buying them but they aren't eating them. Veggies don't make you obese. Oh and I agree with the above comment, get rid of the cell phones, labels, cable and all of the other crap that no one needs and put that money into a good diet!

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11-08-2010 @6:47PM TJ said... In defense of "Simzee", it is true that fresh produce costs more than foods that stretch your dollar, like pasta and hotdogs. To "Me", you are right on...we are "like Me's"...I know how much it hurt to give up my cell phone, but choices had to made. And to "Lisa", goody for you that weight is not an issue for you. Trust me, I care what goes into my body and eat at least the recommended amt. of fruits and veggies, along with "whole" grains, dairy, and protein etc. My problem is that I love almost all food and have become disabled due to arthritis. I can't count the times that people have made the judgement you made and didn't want to hear the truth. I didn't have a weight problem until the pain from my disease made every effort a tearful struggle. I don't cry on the outside "usually", I just crave the tasteful pleasure of good food to suppress the agony of my illness. Until you walk in anothers shoes, or lack of...be careful with your judgements...at 30 my body started telling me I wasn't a kid anymore. I was 35 before I realized that my pain was only increasing...and even then had no idea how bad it would get. At 40, I had both hips replaced, and at 52, I have only shreds of cartilage throughout every joint of my body. It is all I can do to walk to the door of the grocery store, but I do what I can. And I have always eaten right and excercised.

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11-08-2010 @7:38PM ME said... TJ.....Take a pill. Why do we need to Know this?

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11-21-2010 @3:41PM Simzee said... Get rid of the dish for the tv? I don't have one. Perhaps YOU should get rid of yours & eat REAL food instead of McDonalds. I forgot....That's all you can afford. Micky D's dollar menu.

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11-08-2010 @5:23PM Annie Oakley said... Better to eat healthy than to suffer the consequences of eating junk in boxes that contribute to obesity diabetes and high blood pressure. What you spend eatiing healthy can save you from spending a lot of money on doctor bills, pills and medical costs. I know this from my own experience I lost 67 pounds, run and exercise daily and I would rather spend my money on organic lettuce for a salad than to pay for the medicine, medical and doctor bills attributed to a life of eating boxed foods which contains high but empty calories from sugar and salt. If you read labels everything from ketchup to soup contains high fructose corn syrup, sugar and high sodium which causes your taste buds to become addicted to sweet and salty foods that in turn causes those cravings for salty and sweet snack foods which leads often to weight gain. It is a vicious cycle created by food corporations to keep the public addicted to their junkfood nutrition less "food" in boxes. Natural food does not come in boxes or in neon colors of blue and pink.

My last doctor visit, bill and the medicine scared me straight to the produce aisle. I chose to throw away my medicine, eat healthy and feel better, rather than throw my life away and destroy it with empty nutrition, high calorie junk food that destroys your health.

Signed,

Better to choose to spend money and eat leafy green lettuce than buy addicting junk food and get stuck with costly doctor visits to prescribe medicine to "control not cure" the ailments attributed to obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.
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11-08-2010 @6:04PM ME said... ORGANIC brand is the biggest bunch of CRAP. IT markets to the modern day Yuppie. As for the mcfast food, I agree....dont eat it.

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11-08-2010 @6:56PM Holly said... I agree. Organic food is the biggest scam. Not only does it cost more but there it could endanger your health. Organic food is not necessarily healthier than conventional food and might actually be dangerous. Manure used in organic compost is more harmful than the health risks from pesticide residues which can be washed off. Manure may contain E. coli bacterium, which can spread harmful animal-borne diseases to humans. I don't buy my vegetables at the supermarket but at a little farmer's market store that opened up a few years ago just a couple of blocks from my house because they are so much cheaper than the grocery store. They offer locally grown veggies which do taste better than the mass produced grocery items. They have a small higher priced organic section which I don't buy from because I don't want to risk getting sick from a vegetable grown in animal crap. The elitists who buy the organic schmiel should educate themselves on what organic really means--that their veggies are fertilized with animal feces.

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11-08-2010 @5:56PM Squiggles said... I'm surprised that they're actually doing this and not marketing some boxed junk. The argument that produce spoils isn't quite convincing; it has always done so and still was usually relegated to the sidelines of the store.
@Simzee: anybody can afford fresh fruit and vegetables. If you calculate the price per pound it's actually MUCH cheaper than anything that comes in a package or can. Just the other day I was driving by a fruitstand that advertised apples for 49 cents/lb. How much does a box of fruit roll-ups cost compared to that? You'd get at least 3 lbs of apples for that AND avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup, artificial coloring and artificial flavors. You can even buy organic fruit and vegetables for less than $1/lb. You just have to read store advertisements or find an organic farmer nearby. You'd be surprised what you can find if you just took the time to look!
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11-08-2010 @7:05PM Another Lisa said... Well, Lisa that might be easier said then done. A cell phone to some is a life line in case of an emergency. Labels, yeah there I can see your point. The thing is, it's not always as easy as you might think to eat healthy. And, if you only eat healthy then kuddos to you, it must be nice to be special. Most aren't able to do so. Eating healthy generally costs more. Anything with "organic" attached to it is always more. It's also a matter of time too. Not everyone is special enough to have the time to go to a healthier place for lunch or dinner. Or have the money to do so too. It easy to SAY or type what we all should do. We all know what we should do, we should eat right, exercise, get enough rest etc. But, life isn't always like that. If your life is, great your lucky, most aren't as lucky
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11-08-2010 @7:50PM CARLA said...
Too funny if you all think that you know what poor is if a poor person wont buy veggies because they want a cell phone over eating right! I am a traveling Nurse in Mass and real poor people are not picking fun items like cell phones over eating right, funny thing is the veggies prices have tripled in the last year! Lisa and me you might want to give a bit of your time to real the real poor! Sad that you think of that way about your fellow man! Sad!

Read more: http://www.slashfood.com/2010/11/08/how-the-supermarket-feeds-your-veggie-frenzy/1#c31426851#ixzz14k3jluhh
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11-09-2010 @4:42AM Carla said... Got it now me your a kid! Still not too late to give back! Your talent would be better spent sharing it with others than mocking what you haven't a clue about!