Berkeley Bans Junk Food At Checkouts

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Alpha8472
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Berkeley Bans Junk Food At Checkouts

Post by Alpha8472 »

Berkeley, California's City Council has passed an ordinance that requires stores more than 2,500 square feet in size to sell more nutritious food and beverage options in their checkout areas. Options must have no more than 5 grams of added sugars and 200 milligrams of sodium per labeled serving. It will take effect on March 1, 2021 and be enforced starting Jan. 1, 2022.

Small convenience stores will probably be able to avoid this ordinance. Drugstores, supermarkets, and larger convenience stores will be affected.

Examples of approved beverages are LaCroix Sparkling Water, Pure Leaf Unsweetened Black Tea, Capri Sun 100% Juice, V8 Low Sodium 100% Vegetable Juice and Soy Dream Enriched Vanilla Soymilk. Examples of snacks allowed are Kashi Chewy Granola Bars, Sabra Hummus, Smartfood White Cheddar Cheese Popcorn and Horizon Organic Mozzarella String Cheese Stick. Gum and mints with no added sugars will also be allowed.

The council members say that this is not a ban on candy and unhealthy food. Customers are free to buy those products in other parts of the store. Some of the council members believe that it will lead to less tooth decay, heart disease, and diabetes.

I have noticed that there is a large amount of junk food at checkouts, and it does make it tempting to buy more of it since it is at the checkout. If healthy items are substituted, people are going to buy less junk food. However, it does seem like stores will lose sales. Healthy items simply do not appeal to people as much as junk food. Less sales means less tax revenue. With the economy in such bad shape, the city is going to lose quite a bit of money. Those council members are going to have even more budget problems.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/20 ... 535682001/
storewanderer
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Re: Berkeley Bans Junk Food At Checkouts

Post by storewanderer »

Some stores have tried things like this. 20 years ago some stores had "no candy" lanes. Raleys has tried to re-configure some of its checkstands to have only "healthy" snacks (you can still find the old unhealthy stuff).

Problem with this is the city is telling you what you can merchandise in your store and where you can merchandise it. That is going too far. I do wonder why grocery stores still have candy at every checkstand. It isn't hard to find expired candy in just about any store. Sales on this stuff have already gone down a lot over the years. As far as the high fructose syrup-laden beverages go, again not sure why they are so popular but don't think the store should be told where they can and can't be. Unintended consequence here is now instead of having that junk in little coolers at checkout the stores will have to move that into other cooler space potentially taking space away from things like dairy products, etc.

I suppose they could move items like yogurt, juice, etc. into the little checkout coolers but that would be lousy from a stocking, shrink, and ease of customer selection standpoint.
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