Imagine this scenario: You enter your local grocery store with your shopping list in hand—eggs, milk, apples, a loaf of bread, and a pack of ground turkey. You’re on a tight schedule and budget, determined to stick solely to the items on your list. Your New Year's resolution was to cut out unhealthy junk foods and stay on track with your fitness goals, and so far, you’ve been crushing it.
However, by the time you exit the store, your cart is filled with countless items that weren’t on your original list. Perplexed by how your grocery bill has doubled, you scan your receipt, justifying every purchase. Two family-size bags of “Lay’s Classic Potato Chips”—but they were buy one, get one free, you reason. A pack of chocolate chip cookies—you started craving them the moment you walked in. Two boxes of “Cinnamon Toast Crunch”—your son begged for them in Aisle 5. Now, with these nutrient-poor foods stocked in your pantry, you naturally overindulge, as they’re within arm's reach and on your mind all day. Just like that, your fitness goals take a hit.
You might be wondering why it’s so hard to stick to healthy, nutritious food items in the grocery store. Or, a better question: why is it so easy to cave into unhealthy cravings? While you might blame yourself for a lack of self-control, the truth is that it’s not all your fault! Grocery stores are expertly designed to nudge you into purchasing unhealthy foods, using strategic marketing tactics that play on psychology and consumer behavior.
From my own weight-loss journey and research on how social and environmental factors contribute to obesity, I began to realize how supermarkets manipulate consumer behavior to maximize profits—often at the expense of public health. Here are some of the common strategies I discovered that grocery stores use to make you buy processed junk food and, in turn, promote obesity.
Strategy 1: First Impressions Matter
What’s the first thing you see when you walk into a grocery store? Is it fresh fruits and vegetables or stacks of potato chips and cookies? Nine times out of ten, it’s the latter.
This is no accident. Grocery stores intentionally place high-fat, high-carb, calorie-dense foods at the entrance because they know they appeal to your brain's dopamine system. Even if you weren’t thinking about cookies before, now they’re in your head. As you navigate the aisles, the moment you see them again, you’re much more likely to buy them.
Moreover, stores understand that first impressions matter. The minute you walk in, you’re the most impressionable. You are not yet bogged down by decision fatigue—determining which brands to purchase, comparing prices, deciding which flavors of products to buy, etc. By placing household staples like “Doritos” and “Entenmann’s” cakes front and center, they lower your resistance. These are familiar brands that you associate with comfort and affordability, making it easier to grab them without a second thought. This subconscious draw toward unhealthy foods makes it significantly harder to maintain a healthy diet (Shaw et al., 2020)
Here are two images from my local Stop & Shop grocery stores of food items displayed right by the entrances (as you can see by the automatic doors). Fan favorite snacks like “Entenmann’s Little Bites," "Goldfish," and potato chips all line the shelves. And, as you can see by the yellow price tag, a lot of these items are on sale!
Strategy 2: Financially Friendly, but Not Health-Friendly
Think about how often you see sales on processed snacks—"Buy One, Get One Free" chips or "3 for the price of 2" soda deals. Now ask yourself: Have you ever seen a "Buy One, Get One Free" deal on chicken thighs or eggs?
Another picture from my local grocery store of some potato chips. As you can see, there is a great bargain, one that makes it almost hard to pass up—buy two bags, get three free.
This pricing disparity exists because U.S. agricultural policies heavily subsidize commodity crops such as corn, soybeans, and wheat—key ingredients in processed foods—making them cheaper to produce and easier to discount. In contrast, healthier foods like fresh produce and lean proteins receive minimal subsidies and have higher storage and transportation costs, making them more expensive and less frequently discounted (Fields, 2004).
Studies confirm that supermarket discounts disproportionately favor unhealthy, calorie-dense foods. Research published in Preventing Chronic Disease found that the majority of supermarket coupons promoted snacks, desserts, and sugary beverages, reinforcing poor dietary habits (Ghosh-Dastidar et al., 2014). By prominently displaying these discounts in high-traffic areas, supermarkets ensure that unhealthy foods remain financially appealing and readily accessible.
Strategy 3: Last Impressions Matter Too
Even if you make it through the entire store without caving into unhealthy temptations, grocery stores have one final trick up their sleeve: the checkout line.
Here is a picture from my local Target's self-checkout lane. As you can see, there is an assortment of unhealthy snacks—from chocolate bars to potato chips. Also, as you can see on the right, there is a beverage refrigerator, which we all know from personal experience contains a variety of sugary sodas!
Checkout areas are lined with small packets of candy, chocolate bars, potato chips, and sugar-laden drinks. After an exhausting shopping trip, your self-control is depleted, making it even harder to resist a last-minute impulse buy. Research suggests that positioning junk food at checkout counters significantly increases the likelihood of purchase, further contributing to excessive calorie consumption (Collier, 2014).
Strategy 4: Strategic Product Placement
We’ve talked about what you see when you walk in, but where are the fresh produce and healthier staples like milk, cheese, and lean meats? Typically, they’re found in the back of the store or along the perimeters, far from high-foot-traffic areas.
A typical grocery store layout. As you can see, the impulse buy section, which spans the purple sections, is located in the front and center of the store right as you enter. These are the junk foods! In contrast, healthier foods like dairy and meat are much farther away from the entrance, and it is inconvenient to get to these areas unless you cross the impulse buy sections.
Meanwhile, research has shown that the vast majority of end-of-aisle displays feature unhealthy food and drink items (The Obesity Health Alliance, 2018). I can recall countless times I have seen stands for new limited edition flavors of "Oreos" or seasonal pumpkin spice "Tate's Bake Shop Cookies" at the ends of aisles. Additionally, the middle aisles—which you must pass through to reach healthier foods—are dominated by processed snacks, sugary cereals, sodas, and refined grains. This layout forces you to navigate a gauntlet of temptations before you reach the nutritious items on your list.
At the end of the aisle at my local Walmart, unhealthy calorie-dense food items with minimal proteins are marketed to consumers—from the aesthetic packaging design to the low prices.
Strategy 5: Manipulating Kids' Choices
Remember in our opening scenario how your son begged you for Cinnamon Toast Crunch in Aisle 5? That wasn’t a coincidence—it was a carefully planned marketing tactic.
Supermarkets strategically place child-targeted foods at children's eye level to increase their appeal. A study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that many sugary cereals and snacks are intentionally placed on lower shelves, making them easily visible and accessible to kids (Harris et al., 2010).
This image from "The Health Teacher" is the perfect example of my point. Unhealthy cereal options with fun mascots are placed at children's eye levels—promoting unhealthy food choices among children!
Additionally, brands use bright colors and cartoon mascots like Tony the Tiger to grab children's attention. These design elements create emotional connections with kids, who then pester their parents to buy the products—a phenomenon known as "pester power" (Mulligan et al., 2023). The result? Parents cave in, and another box of sugar-laden cereal makes its way into the shopping cart. Everyone remembers Tony the Tiger from Frosted Flakes, and the famous slogan "They're grrreat!" and that is not by accident.
Final Thoughts
Grocery stores are designed to maximize profits, often at the expense of your health. From placing junk food at the entrance to strategic product placement and aggressive discounting, supermarkets employ a range of tactics to push unhealthy food choices onto consumers.
Understanding these strategies can help you make more mindful choices. Sticking to a shopping list, avoiding impulse buys, and shopping along the store perimeter can help you resist these psychological traps. While it takes effort to outsmart the system, staying aware of these tricks can help you stay on track with your health and weight-loss goals.
As always, thank you for reading, and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
References
Collier, R. (2014). Call to reduce junk food at checkouts. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 187(1), E14. https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.109-4940
Fields, S. (2004). The Fat of the Land: Do Agricultural Subsidies Foster Poor Health? Environmental Health Perspectives, 112(14). https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.112-a820
Ghosh-Dastidar, B., Cohen, D., Hunter, G., Zenk, S. N., Huang, C., Beckman, R., & Dubowitz, T. (2014). Distance to Store, Food Prices, and Obesity in Urban Food Deserts. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 47(5), 587–595. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2014.07.005
Harris, J. L., Webb, V., Sacco, S. J., & Pomeranz, J. L. (2020). Marketing to Children in Supermarkets: An Opportunity for Public Policy to Improve Children’s Diets. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(4), 1284. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17041284
Mulligan, C., Remedios, L., Ramsay, T., Pauzé, E., Bagnato, M., & Kent, M. P. (2023). The impact of characters like Tony the Tiger and other child-targeted techniques used in food and beverage marketing. Frontiers in Nutrition, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2023.1287473
The Obesity Health Alliance. (2018). Out of place: The extent of unhealthy foods in prime locations in supermarkets. https://obesityhealthalliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Out-of-Place-Obesity-Health-Alliance-2.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
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