'Healthier store layout prompts healthier buying decisions'

Altering the layouts of a store can help people make healthier food choices, says recent research, claiming that replacing confectionery and other unhealthy products from checkouts and the end of nearby aisles with fruits and vegetables prompts customers to make healthier food purchases.

As per a new research from the University of Southampton, conducted in partnership with the national supermarket chain Iceland Foods Ltd, a store or a supermarket’s layout and display of items play a huge role in eating habits and thus overall health of the customers.

When non-food items and water were placed at prominent points- checkouts and at the end of the opposite aisles- and food and vegetable section was expanded and placed near the entrance, store-wide confectionery sales decreased while sale of fruit and vegetable increased, said the report.

Beneficial effects were also observed in terms of household purchase of fruits and vegetables as well as individual dietary quality, said the report, which also claimed that “a healthier store layout may lead to nearly 10,000 extra portions of fruit and vegetables and approximately 1,500 fewer portions of confectionery being sold on a weekly basis in each store”.

Dr Christina Vogel, Principal Research Fellow in Public Health Nutrition, said that altering the layouts of supermarkets could help people make healthier food choices.

"Altering the layouts of supermarkets could help people make healthier food choices and shift population diet towards the government's dietary recommendations,” Vogel said.

The study was aimed to find ways to reduce customers’ exposure to calorie opportunities by placing non-food items at checkout and opposite aisle-ends opposite. The measuring effects on store sales, customer loyalty card purchasing patterns and the diets of more than one household member were recorded and studied.

Matt Downes, Head of Format Development at Iceland, said that Iceland is pleased to support this long-term study and “the evaluation of how product placement in supermarkets can affect the diets of our customers”.

“We know that childhood obesity is a growing issue and the retail industry has its part to play in tackling this. We hope that the outcomes of the study provide insights for the wider retail industry and policy makers about the impact of store merchandising on purchasing decisions,” Downes said.

The studies findings appear to support the government’s upcoming HFSS regulation under which the government will ban placement of unhealthy foods across prominent places in retail outlets such as entrance and end of aisles.