Obesity and Supermarkets, Is there a Connection?

[Chiliagon]

so I was at the local Superstore today buying some fruits and fat free Yogurt to make some nice tasty Smoothies when I was observing the convenient placement of all that crap foods. IE Candy, Chocolate Bars, bulk food candy, chips, etc.

it was all right near the check outs, next to the fruit and vegetable stands.

they had them in bright big advertising boxes with them all over.

hard to not see them when they're everywhere.


so, it got me to thinking to myself "no wonder there are a lot of obese people! you're waiting to pay for your stuff and BOOM right in your face there's every possible candy sitting there! and then next to your left BOOM! pop and energy Drinks!

and it's like the first thing you see when you enter the store, BUY ME! I TASTE GOOD! but I'm not good for you!

it goes along with how the healthy foods are so expensive to buy when your candy and chips are cheap and in large amounts!

so of course people are more likely to buy the cheap bad foods.


So are the Supermarkets more concerned about selling as much as they can and making as much buck in a day rather than what they place near their check outs and what they place in the aisles?

 

[Risus]

Was this so important that you had to post it twice???

 

[Tonington]

The supermarkets place products to sell them. There's lots of market research and focus groups and what not that have gone into optimizing product location. What height would you need to be to be eye level with healthy cereal? Quite tall. Some supermarkets are even placing radio frequency identification, like that used to track wild life, inside shopping carts to optimize the placement of products further.

Was this so important that you had to post it twice???

You can just report the duplicate thread instead of being an ass.

 

[gingersnap]

So are the Supermarkets more concerned about selling as much as they can and making as much buck in a day rather than what they place near their check outs and what they place in the aisles?

Yes.

 

[gerryh]

It always blows me away when people state or insinuate that it is the sellers job to decide what the buyer should be purchasing and why.

It is the sellers job to make a profit and that is basically it. It is upto the purchaser to decide what they want to buy and why.

 

[gingersnap]

It always blows me away when people state or insinuate that it is the sellers job to decide what the buyer should be purchasing and why.

It is the sellers job to make a profit and that is basically it. It is upto the purchaser to decide what they want to buy and why.

Exactly! And it's the parents job to teach their kids about this sort of thing from a very early age so they grow up to be informed consumers.

 

[Risus]

Obesity: Don't blaim the supermarkets, blame the idiots that buy the crap. Going through a few channels on the TV this afternoon, I saw 3 ads for pizza. Maybe you want to blame TV for obesity, too...

 

[karrie]

Sugary foods turn a huge profit because people get addicted to them (literally, physically) and since they're such good profit margins and so likely to be an impulse buy it's in the seller's best interests to have them at eye level and since they are at eye level. It also doesn't make sense, in a store lay out, to put your tiny little boxes of gum and chocolate bars on huge shelves where you need to put boxes of cereal. or jugs of mayonnaise. And it wouldn't make sense to put those crucial things in the checkout aisles for people to hunt after them. The whole thing is a bit 'chicken and egg' frankly.

 

[#juan]

:roll:Yeah, the superstores did a hell of a con job on me to force me to buy a half dozen racks of baby back ribs. I have two full racks of
those ribs slow cooking right now. Save On forced me to buy a bag of tiny new potatoes to go with the ribs. I couldn't walk by the liquor store without buying a bottle of Chardonnay.........Probably subliminal advertising that got me. It's really not fair to have obesity like this forced on us.......;-)

 

[Chiliagon]

well, I guess it all goes hand in hand with a capitalist style of life we are all in..

"make as much money as you can in as little time as you can do it!"

so if that means under handing people or not doing anything to battle problems in society like Obesity, addiction, etc. they're more concerned about profits.

funny all these reports and news articles and scientists always remind us about obesity issues and dangers and how eating certains foods is unhealthy and leads to heart disease and early deaths and health issues..

YET, nobody is truly willing to do anything about it. Not 1 Supermarket has made any serious attempts to change their methods to battle it,

Neither do stores that sell this stuff, IE Max's quicky Marts, reddi-Marts 7-11's.

Some fast food restaurants and other popular restaurants have made some changes in what they use with their foods but it's not enough.

Society is too controlled by Capitalism and money is more important than good health.

Yes Yes, it does all lead up to the person who's purchasing these foods and their choices they make ultimately decide their fate but Our big society influences can definitely assist in helping us make those decisions.

 

[bill barilko]

This post reminded me of something-travelling to a business meeting in the suburbs every 6 weeks or so I got into the habit of stopping @ a hyper-market one of those grocery stores bigger than many hockey arenas.

Prices for some things like soap were much lower than here close to downtown so why not.

Then I realised I was seeing the same people during the middle of the day/middle of the week-the huge behemoths who need special contraptions to enter/exit their cars/houses and who will never climb a set of stairs again in the lives-this super sized superstore was their second home I swear I even recognised one woman who seemed to be there every time I went and and she sure didn't work there.

Certainly it's not the store's fault those people are so huge but they've sure made themselves @ home.

 

[gerryh]

ya know....if you didn't have a choice in what you could buy, I'd give ya the stores are responsible...but.... that's not the case. The stores hold NO responsibility in what YOU choose to buy or not buy. It's called taking responsible for YOUR actions. I see and hear too many these days shoving off their responsibility's to someone or something else.

 

[gingersnap]

well, I guess it all goes hand in hand with a capitalist style of life we are all in..

"make as much money as you can in as little time as you can do it!"

so if that means under handing people or not doing anything to battle problems in society like Obesity, addiction, etc. they're more concerned about profits.

funny all these reports and news articles and scientists always remind us about obesity issues and dangers and how eating certains foods is unhealthy and leads to heart disease and early deaths and health issues..

YET, nobody is truly willing to do anything about it. Not 1 Supermarket has made any serious attempts to change their methods to battle it,

Neither do stores that sell this stuff, IE Max's quicky Marts, reddi-Marts 7-11's.

Some fast food restaurants and other popular restaurants have made some changes in what they use with their foods but it's not enough.

Society is too controlled by Capitalism and money is more important than good health.

Yes Yes, it does all lead up to the person who's purchasing these foods and their choices they make ultimately decide their fate but Our big society influences can definitely assist in helping us make those decisions.

I eat very healthy - by choice (and cuz I is smart) But I have to tell you, if I want to treat myself once in a while to a nice bag of greasy salty potato chips and my supermarket no longer carried them because there are idiots out there who have become obese by eating chips all the time .... I would be pissed.

 

[Chiliagon]

everybody has their role in this world gerryh..

yes it is up to ourselves ultimately but how could we possibly know if the companies that provide what we eat are providing healthy foods if they don't do their part!?

well ya.

there truly is nothing wrong with having something naughty to spoil yourself occasionally.. it's good to have a little variety.


but those who I go to the market and I see their cart FULL of crap.. 3 bags of chips 2 containers of regular pop, frozen desserts, garbage cereal, yet I hardly see any fruits, veggies, meats, seafood!

a lot of processed foods! (which are awful for you)

and then I look at their physique and I see the resemblance to their cart.

 

[gerryh]

everybody has their role in this world gerryh..

yes it is up to ourselves ultimately but how could we possibly know if the companies that provide what we eat are providing healthy foods if they don't do their part!?

well ya.

there truly is nothing wrong with having something naughty to spoil yourself occasionally.. it's good to have a little variety.


but those who I go to the market and I see their cart FULL of crap.. 3 bags of chips 2 containers of regular pop, frozen desserts, garbage cereal, yet I hardly see any fruits, veggies, meats, seafood!

a lot of processed foods! (which are awful for you)

and then I look at their physique and I see the resemblance to their cart.

and that is THEIR problem and no one elses. Definitely not the stores problem.

 

[JLM]

and that is THEIR problem and no one elses. Definitely not the stores problem.

It could well be our problem as heart conditions and diabetes start to run rampant and we get billed for it.

 

[Chiliagon]

yup , think about this..

the number of surgeries for heart related issues due to cholesterol and fat, and clogged arteries increase, Insurance costs go up,

The Cities and the Country see that there's a demand for more technology and doctors to deal with the increasing health problems due to Obesity problems, and so in order to pay for it they have to increase taxes and healthcare costs.

so our income goes down due to paying more taxes.

 

[gerryh]

so...what do you want.... you want the government to now start regulating what we eat? Any other responsibility you want to slough off onto the government or someone else?

 

[gingersnap]

It could well be our problem as heart conditions and diabetes start to run rampant and we get billed for it.

I would support a higher tax on fast foods and unhealthy snack foods to offset the higher medical costs. Would that work for you?

 

[Chiliagon]

so...what do you want.... you want the government to now start regulating what we eat? Any other responsibility you want to slough off onto the government or someone else?

that's not what I was saying. I am saying that people need to stop being lazy with their choices in life and take care of themselves.

and I don't think that people should be soft on them and treat them special because they're unable to choose healthy alternatives and be smart about what they eat and how they live.

I really do think that perhaps if there was incentives by the Govt on all 3 levels to promote and suggest healthy life styles, it might help.

increase prices on the unhealthy foods..

make it easier for people to purchase the healthy foods, like fruits and veggies and certain oils and so on.

I would support a higher tax on fast foods and unhealthy snack foods to offset the higher medical costs. Would that work for you?

I was just suggesting that.. as you can see above! make it more expensive to eat crappy foods.

instead of $1.25 for a chocolate bar make em $3.25. instead of $1.50 (if that's the price for it) for a can of pop. make it $3.50

there needs to be incentives for choosing healthy lifestyles.