Michigan mom calls for healthy checkouts at Meijer grocery stores
CBC | Posted: January 4, 2017 12:48 PM | Last Updated: January 4, 2017
'Super toxic tunnels of manipulation'
Jane Kramer loves shopping at Meijer. She loves the store's products and its workers, just not its "super toxic tunnels of manipulation."
The Michigan mom wants the big box stores to change their aisles of temptation — the junk food, tabloids and magazines that crowd customers as they wait in the checkout line.
- Guelph man gets grocery store to pull National Enquirer issue with 'Islamophobic' cover
- Canadians spend $3,720 a year on impulse buys, survey finds
Kramer believes the magazines promote unattainable standards of beauty and body image and the tabloids make fun of people's weight and appearance. Throw easy access to junk food into the mix and she said the checkout can have customers paying in more way than one.
"It's damaging to everybody, so it's not just kids. It's everybody's mental and physical health," Kramer said.
Kramer moved to Bath Township, Mich., near East Lansing, 11 years ago and has shopped at a nearby Meijer store ever since.
She said she chooses to shop at that location because of how the employees treat her and her family. The checkouts weren't a problem for her before adopting a five-year-old child, but now her son makes her look at the checkout through a different lens.
"What was an issue, was the reading materials, because after he learned to read the first thing he asked me about was an article about cocaine," said Kramer. "I think he was about six or seven."
In 2005, she contacted Meijer customer service about her healthy checkout aisle plan, but didn't get much feedback.
Then Kramer got cancer and focused on her health. This past September she tried to talk to Meijer again, but only got as far as customer service. She decided to start an online petition that has already gained more than 600 signatures.
Carrots instead of candy
Kramer said she has not heard back from the grocery store about her petition.
In a statement sent to CBC News Wednesday morning, Meijer spokesman, Frank Guglielmi, said the stores tailor their checkout options to the millions of customers that walk through them each week.
"Our goal is to ensure our offerings appeal to the needs of a very broad and diverse customer base," he said. "We are proud of the healthy choices we offer throughout our stores as well as the fact that our customers can count on us for all of their shopping needs, whatever their buying preference."
Kramer said shopping at Meijer is a pleasant experience until she gets to the checkout. Then it suddenly becomes a negative environment. But she believes that offering healthier options could actually make for more tempting impulse buys for customers waiting in line.
She suggests bags of carrots or a banana be available for purchase instead of candy and chocolate bars at checkouts. Where magazines and tabloids now fill the shelves, Kramer said she'd like to see children's books or educational magazines.
"I would happily spend an extra $10 to $15 at checkout, because right now I'm not buying anything," Kramer said. "It's kind of funny that I"m actually asking Meijer to help me spend more at checkout."
- MORE WINDSOR NEWS | Search continues for plane carrying 6 that vanished over Lake Erie
- MORE WINDSOR NEWS | Detroit Zoo doesn't hibernate during winter