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July 17 2007
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10 Things Your Grocery Store Doesn't Want You to Know

You may not think twice about heading to the supermarket for your weekly grocery-shopping trip, but that doesn’t mean no one else has. Market researchers go to great lengths to make sure you buy more food, and of the most expensive varieties, every time you enter the store.

Knowing the tricks they use can help you to make healthier choices and get more for your money. Some cases in point:

  • “Use-by” dates are suggestions: Often, food is still good beyond the “best if used by” date.
  • Foods aimed at kids are placed at their level: Ever wonder how your 3-year-old got that package of cookies into the cart? They’re placed on low shelves for that specific reason.
  • Convenience will cost you: Meat, fruit and veggies that comes already cut and ready-to-use are convenient, but they can cost you up to twice as much as the uncut versions.
  • Beware of end-aisle displays: Food companies pay to have their products placed there, because consumers are 30 percent more likely to buy items that are easily seen.
  • You have to reach for healthier foods: Popular junk foods are usually placed right at eye level, meaning you usually have to reach up or down to get to healthier items.

MSN Health & Fitness July 1, 2007



Dr. MercolaDr. Mercola's Comments:

Being aware of supermarket secrets can help you navigate stores successfully -- or lead you to avoid them entirely. The business practices of the large superstores often border on the frightening. You also might want to take a look at the documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price to see why getting out of the supermarket entirely might be in your best interest.

Even aside from their predatory business practices, supermarkets tend to be chock full of junk food -- and the advertising techniques they use to sell them are often aimed directly at your children. If you need to shop in grocery stores buy want to avoid these traps, you might want to check out my article on How to Shop for the Right Food in Your Regular Grocery Store in 10 Easy Steps.

But in the long run, you’d be better off getting organic food from a farmers' market or a CSA. The food will be local, which means that it will be fresher and also that it will help preserve the environment by preventing the wasteful use of fossil fuels in transportation. What’s more, organic food purchased this way does not have to be cost-prohibitive for the average family or single consumer.

In addition, organic farms:

  • Feed and build soil with natural fertilizer, which is far more environmentally friendly than chemical fertilizer
  • Use natural methods such as insect predators and barriers instead of insecticides
  • Use crop rotation, tillage, hand weeding, cover crops and mulches rather than herbicides to control weeds

Conventionally grown food is often tainted with chemical residues, which can be harmful. Pesticides can have many negative influences on your health, including neurotoxicity, disruption of your endocrine system, carcinogenicity and immune system suppression. Pesticide exposure may also affect male reproductive function and has been linked to miscarriages in women.

If you're on the lookout for fresher, more natural sources of raw foods or more reasons why you should stay away from substandard, cheap factory food, I urge you to review my resource page supporting the great need for sustainable agriculture with many links.


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Community Comments ( 42 )
Comment on this Article
  
  
Phantom O' Banjo
[ Joined on 09/06 ] [ Posted on July 2, 2007 ]
12 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
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.
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Katy B
[ Joined on 03/07 ]  [ Posted on July 2, 2007]
1 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
O'Banjo you hit the nail again.  I don't mind bending for the best stuff.  Of course what they consider to be healthy and what I do are miles apart.

On the salad bars, I remember back in Oregon the Rajneesh's disciples tainted them with salmonella in order to get rid of the local polpulation so they could take over, [or some such motive].  I knew someone who was poisoned there he said he was sick a long time, since then I've kept away from buffet foods.
  
  
minnie-me
[ Joined on 02/07 ] [ Posted on July 9, 2007 ]
8 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
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.
 [ Reply ]
  
  
mmc88121
[ Joined on 11/06 ] [ Posted on July 2, 2007 ]
7 Points        
   
 
Moderator User
This article forgot grouping unhealthy items with healthy ones.  Such as having strawberries on sale, placed next to the "short cakes"

Mary
 [ Reply ]
  
  
Ber
[ Joined on 04/07 ] [ Posted on July 4, 2007 ]
6 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
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.
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Maj
[ Joined on 03/07 ]  [ Posted on July 4, 2007]
1 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
Another tip my mom taught me was to shop on the outside edges of the grocery store - almost everything on the inside aisles is garbage (though occasionally you have to get things like spices and toilet paper).

Grocery stores are also set up to funnel traffic in specific ways. I've yet to go into a store - including our local organic market - that doesn't encourage its customers to go to either the deli or the produce section first.
Mercola
  
LilLadyRen
[ Joined on 06/07 ]  [ Posted on July 17, 2007]
       
   
This user is BELOW novice level and all their comments need to be reviewed with great caution.
  Mercola

Only if we all had parents like that, your post made me giggle. I, of course, know these things now, but man when my mom (since she is on this site, mom don't worry, you didn't know - I know) let me go to grocery store, I'd get anything and everything, just a lil spoiled :) but yes now I'm a health freak and usually don't go to the convenience store unless I see some deal I can not pass up (as a poor college student-yes that is my excuse most of the time).

  
  
Lepidopteryx
[ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on July 17, 2007 ]
3 Points        
   
 
Novice User

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).

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Truth is Healthy
[ Joined on 06/06 ]  [ Posted on July 17, 2007]
       
   
This user is BELOW novice level and all their comments need to be reviewed with great caution.
  Mercola

Well aren't you just perfect and wonderful.

Do you drive a Pious also?

Mercola
  
LilLadyRen
[ Joined on 06/07 ]  [ Posted on July 17, 2007]
       
   
This user is BELOW novice level and all their comments need to be reviewed with great caution.
  Mercola

I read all the replies, but I'd like to have mine up here to be seen. I live in an apt . . . but I don't have a car at all, I want to do all that stuff mentioned, so I am going to try :/ I can't really afford it either, but again, trying is worth it. Yes - "Truth" - please take it easy, you seem to be argueing with people that you are on the same site with, aren't you here for the same reasons we are? A prius sounds cool, if I ever get a car, I'd like something like that :) Thanks for standing up for that poor woman Islander, I look up to you for that. I used to be very outspoken but have just gotten worn out by people like "TRUTH" and they're smart alloky comments all the time. I have a lot of skeptic gym jockey friends as well, they just make me sad inside because they refuse to listen to suggestion in some ego trip that you are "bragging" or something about your health knowledge, when in reality you are just trying to help other people. They feel they are helping me by putting me down, maybe that is how "TRUTH" feels, I don't know . . . Truth do you think you are helping everyone with your remarks? and for PHYLLIS1170 I'm sure you regret your comment after all the replies I read, but yes I have said the same thing before because I did think I couldn't find the cheap stuff elsewhere. I was wrong though, it just takes more time and effort which a lot of middle-class americans as yourself claim to not have. I go to school and work, yet manage to get on here and educate myself about these things. For the skeptics, no I don't believe everything I read, but I do appreciate someone challenging the big industry and the EMPLOYEE testimonials to how some corporations really work, can't fabricate that, can you? thank you.

  
  
Katy B
[ Joined on 03/07 ] [ Posted on July 4, 2007 ]
3 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
I wonder why it is some people just question everything, and others believe the whole bucket of lies?  Just wonderin'.
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
"David"
[ Joined on 08/06 ]  [ Posted on July 17, 2007]
       
   
Savvy User
  Mercola

...same people, maybe, who don't do anything with passion....perfectionism...enthusiasm.....or knowledge...?

  
  
Dr. Randy
[ Joined on 08/06 ] [ Posted on July 17, 2007 ]
2 Points        
   
 
Novice User

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!

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Truth is Healthy
[ Joined on 06/06 ]  [ Posted on July 17, 2007]
       
   
This user is BELOW novice level and all their comments need to be reviewed with great caution.
  Mercola

So you watched a video, and you assume it's true information. Do some fact checking, especially on the side that fits your agenda.

  
  
Katy B
[ Joined on 03/07 ] [ Posted on July 4, 2007 ]
2 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
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!
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
HealingMindN
[ Joined on 05/07 ]  [ Posted on July 19, 2007]
       
   
Apprentice User
  Mercola

Hey Katy,

I'll bet there's a commercial psych text that predicted exactly how your kid would respond.  The sell-out psychologists have been using supermarket security tapes for decades to determine behavioral responses.  

They also expect that most parents don't take time to explain the concept of money and economy to their kids including pitfalls of impulse buying pretty packaging especially made for kids.  

That's why it's up to people like us, above the mediocrity, to take that time to help our kids understand how to rise above the herd behavior to be a truly healthy, happy, smart individual.  

  
  
Phyllis1170
[ Joined on 07/07 ] [ Posted on July 17, 2007 ]
1 Points