It’s becoming ever more common for stores of all kinds – even those that don’t otherwise sell food – to tempt harried and fatigued shoppers with candy and junk food in the check-out aisle. It’s a practice that preys on kids in particular, and many parents hate it. (See my post, “Parental Pet Peeve: Junk Food in the Check-Out Aisle“)
One of the public health organizations doing the most to call out this unhealthy practice is the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which in 2015 issued a comprehensive report about unhealthy check-out aisles (Temptation at Check-Out) that’s well worth reading.
Now CSPI is seeking your help to get candy and junk food out of the check-out aisles of toy stores around the country. Here’s an open letter from the organization:
Running errands can be stressful, especially with kids. Yet stores and food manufacturers make it even harder by aggressively promoting junk food to kids everywhere we shop, even at toy stores.
Candy displays at checkout induce people to purchase, and kids to beg for, extra calories that few can afford and many don’t really want.
CSPI is petitioning toy stores to stop pushing candy on kids at checkout— but they need your help!
CSPI is looking for parents who have felt frustrated by junk food marketing to kids, particularly in the checkout aisle. Perhaps you or someone you know has a child with a dietary issue who constantly struggles with junk food temptation? If so, we’d like to speak with you and hear your perspective.
It will only take a few minutes! Please contact CSPI at nutritionpolicy@cspinet.org or 202-777-8351.
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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017 Bettina Elias Siegel
Chris Byrd says
Is this really the best solution?
I’m NOT in favor of shady marketing techniques, and children’s health is a personal and professional passion, but I’m also not in favor of just making the things we don’t like illegal. Too often we see the solution to a problem is to simply remove whatever we have taken offense to just so we do not have to deal with it. Do you think that removing candy from the checkout lines will move the candy to some distant shelf in the back of the store? Doubtful at best. Stores will just move it to the closest possible place they can. And most likely increase the available options as it won’t be on those tiny shelves any longer.
Instead of removing the symptoms, maybe we try harder to parent our kids sooner and prevent the issue from the start? My daughter loves all the candy at the registers, but I can (and do) say NO. And since I’m the parent, she kind of has to listen… right? I mean, her source of income is my wallet.
Jen says
I agree. Why is it so difficult to be the adult in the relationship and just tell our kids NO!?
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Hi Jen – see my comment to Chris in this thread.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Chris – I agree that parents play a critical role in shaping their children’s diets. But today’s parents are swimming against a tide that is much, MUCH stronger than it was, say, fifty years ago. As but one example, it would have been bizarre back then to see racks of candy and chips in an office supply store, but today, in an OfficeMax, it’s par for the course. When our environment becomes affirmatively “obesogenic,” is there no point at which we’re allowed to look critically at that environment and make changes? Not sure if you read the TLT post linked in this one, but it has more along these lines.
Kristen Beddard says
While I agree that parents have the responsibility to make this choice for their children, I think we would ALL be better off if the candy/junk food aisle at checkout was eliminated. Many children eat exactly how their parents eat and that might mean the bag of M&Ms, etc. at check-out is being enjoyed by the entire family.
From a specific NYC perspective, as more and more grocery stores have closed and drugstores like Walgreens/Duane Reade become many of the main (overpriced) stores for basic food/staples, I find it so hypocritical that these stores have a small aisle for “fresh” foods (apples! bananas!) and then line the check-out with garbage. For many these stores are their only options and when the junk outweighs the healthy options, everyone in the family suffers.
Natalya Harman says
Agree 100% with Bettina. This is predatory marketing that uses well-tested strategies to force parents into situations that they normally would never be in. Junk food is everywhere and there are only so many times a parent can say no, especially when other parents around them are relenting. This reminds me of soda industry tactics with super sizes being introduced and then forcefully marketed at low prices to entice even the poorest consumers to overindulge and cause debilitating chronic diseases that Society must been pay for. When our Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York City fought back he was called a nanny and we were being repudiated by the beverage Association as a nanny State. Well, no one is entitled to drink 64 oz of soda and the packaging is something that has been concocted by the manufacturers to sell more product. There is nothing Nanny ish about restricting sizes or location of where these deleterious products can be sold and how they can be marketed especially to children. It is becoming very clear that unless local governments and activists and ngos get involved status quo will continue as the American Beverage Association and the Grocers Association and all of the big moneyed trade groups lobby to sell more sugar fat and preservatives to the most vulnerable populations, nothing will happen. So go ahead Bettina keep fighting the good fight and I totally support the cspi’s noble efforts to curb these nefarious practices. Corporations don’t have consciences only bottom lines and shareholders to answer to. We as parents and consumers need to step up.