Can healthy checkout end-caps improve targeted fruit and vegetable purchases? Evidence from grocery and SNAP participant purchases

Grocery shoppers face time and attention constraints when shopping that may contribute to decreased purchase and consumption of fruits and vegetables. We created and tested a healthy checkout strategy that made fruits and vegetables both convenient and salient. Specifically, cashiers were trained to suggestive sell pre-packaged, convenient, low-cost, pairs of fruits or vegetables located at the checkout aisle end-cap. Overall and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participant purchases of targeted fruits and vegetables significantly increased within treatment stores and between the treatment stores relative to the control store. A significant decreasing trend in overall produce sales in the control store was found, but not for treatment stores. Further pilot testing of healthy checkout strategies is needed to provide additional evidence of efficacy and to understand better how economically sustainable these strategies are for retailers.