Ain't it nice they make the health people bend for their food while the unhealthy don't have to.  While they keep them supplied with the bad food.

There are always going to be ignorant people who are oblivious to the marketing ploys of food manufacturers and supermarket chains. As long as people fall for these deceitful practices, we will continue to be a nation (or world) of overweight, unhealthy people.
However, there IS a growing trend of health conscious families. In the city in which I reside, there were no alternative grocery stores when we moved here 5 years ago. We now have 4, in addition to Wild Oats, Mustard Seed and several others in neighboring suburbs. Both Krogers and Giant Eagle have expanded their healthier, organic sections.
I still see families with young children loading their carts with junk, but I am seeing more people reading labels and selecting their foods carefully. More importantly, I am seeing families frequent the healthier grocery stores. Hopefully the trend will continue as these people try to educate their families, friends and neighbors about the importance of real nutrition...All of us here are doing it...I know my family and friends are rethinking their nutrition habits! 
When my grandson first became gluten and casein free, I found very few  foods that he could eat. Now, there are many more. I am seeing more whole grains, soy and egg free products, nitrate free, organic meats, organic fruits & vegetables and so much more...
If food manufacturers don't jump on the bandwagon  (I mean by offering pure...not "fake organic foods"  without the additives) they are downright stupid! The market is there...the consumers just need to be heard.

This article forgot grouping unhealthy items with healthy ones.  Such as having strawberries on sale, placed next to the "short cakes"

Mary

This is old, very old, news.  I remember as a little girl my mother had rules we went by at the store.  First we could have no cereals from the center only the top and bottom.  I remember asking the grocer one time if he could move the kind I liked and he told me he couldn't.  LOL  The other rule is we bought staples and basics.  If we could make the same product out of our staples and basics then we didn't purchase the 'kit'. 

Another rule was if we asked and were told no, and didn't argue, we left the door open for her to change her answer at the register or not.  If we argued we 'locked' the door and her answer of no could not be altered.  This one more people ought to use when dealing with children that 'grab & go' or 'fuss & fume' I believe. 

Also there was the idea that since she was paying she had the ultimate call on a purchases.  That we never challenged.  I can not tell you how many times I heard, "Oh, are you paying today?" nor can I tell you how many times I have said it or will prior to death.  LOL  The same rule goes for the kitchen, "Oh, are you cooking today?".

One I began is the 'We are not bill boards.' rule.  We do not purchase anything to be walking adverts for any company or movie I might add for free.  My oldest even had the dealer take his advert off her new car. The dealer had never seen anyone do that. 

Now my grandson knows these all by heart too.  They have rules for marketing and we must have rules for purchasing it is really simple.

I worked at Wal-mart as a college student/single parent, and you don't know the half of their deception. I now refuse to set foot in one.

We live in a ground-floor apartment with a small green space behind it, and in a roughly 12-foot by 5-foot space, I have tomatoes, peppers, melons, potatoes, squash, carrots, herbs, peas, and beans in the ground, and a lemon tree, a blood orange tree, and a satsuma tree in pots. All of it is organically grown, and I compost the manure from our pet rabbits along with what kitchen scraps the rabbits won't eat to use for fertilizer. We have a Farmer's Market where I can get free-range eggs, as well as organically produced poultry, beef, and pork, along with whatever fruits and veggies I don't raise myself. My dad is retired and is an avid fisherman, ans since my mom hates fish, he brings me his catch, so we always have fish in the freezer. Sale of raw milk is illegal here, but we are blessed with three local dairies, none of which use prophylactic antibiotics or rBGH on their cows, so we can get quality dairy products. We have a Whole Foods, and it's there that I buy toothpaste, toilet paper, and cleaning products. I don't buy much food there, because even though their food is mostly organic, it's still shipped from all over the world, using obscene amounts of fuel. I buy only those products there that I can't get from local sources. I buy very few processed foods, and we have found that since we started eating this way, our hunger is satisfied with less food intake. We have also found that we seldom crave the junk food that we used to eat. We also have less G-I issues (or as we refer to them, cleansings - after all, when there's something in your body that doesn't belong there, you only have a few options for getting rid of it).

I wonder why it is some people just question everything, and others believe the whole bucket of lies?  Just wonderin'.

Watch the DVD "The High Cost of Low Prices."  I was a Wal-Mart shopper too until I saw that video and a news report that they were falsely labeling factory farmed food as organic.  When I hear, "I can't afford to shop anywhere else!" then my response is, "Did you eat BEFORE Wal-Mart moved into your town?"  I shop elsewhere and find good food at the same or better prices than Wal-Mart.  I find most everything at competitive prices elsewhere in town.  Wal-Mart has done an excellent job of brainwashing people into thinking they can't find a better selection or better prices elsewhere.  Their practices are deceptive and predatory and I've seen too many family-owned businesses go out of business because of Wally World.  

Where do you think their prices will go once they've clobbered the competition?  When you have no other options in town, they can charge what they want.  Yet Americans will continue to blindly shop there thinking they're still getting a great deal.  

Gee, it might take some effort in order to spend the same amount on groceries, oil changes, eyeglasses, and toilet paper but other companies do compete!  You might not be able to buy your hair dryer, bicycle, and shredded carrots all in the same store but you won't spend more by NOT shopping at Wal-Mart.  Your community will be better for it.

On a side note, I used to work retail.  Manufacturers actually pay national retailers to place their products in a specific spot on the shelf.  If it's a high profit item for the manufacturer, the retailer will take payola to place it at eye level.  Usually this means that the retailer is not making much money on that product.  This is the reason that, for example, drug stores push their own brands.  They cost pennies to make and even though the consumer is saving money, the store is making a larger profit margin.  Wal-Mart is no exception to this!

Children don't really understand about grocery stores, they see what they want and take it.  Stores know this and encourage their little kiddie greed by cart-height temptations, commercials prepare them for the bright packaging, even though they can't read they KNOW what's in those packages, and have you ever noticed that cookies are a lot easier to get into than other foods?  Once opened they must be paid for.

I was alerted to the kid-ignorance once when my daughter [ aged 3] said, "Let's go shopping." I replied that I had no money to which she said, "Go to the store, they'll give you money."  She'd always seen I get change and missed my paying them!