Talking about the origins of a fast food success store, Wallace Fowler, who owns sixty KFC franchises, told Bloomberg Businessweek, “Kentucky Fried Chicken hit the streets with eleven herbs and spices, pressure-cooked, and by and large, the general public doesn’t give a damn how many calories are in it.” The stimulus for his statement was efforts by KFC Corporation to reach health-conscious consumers by emphasizing grilled chicken over the fried chicken recipe.
My advice to you, retailer, is that if your adult customers choose to take the unhealthy route, ease the guilt for them. Feel no need to go beyond fully informing them and obeying the law. When Giant Foods, reportedly inspired by President John. F. Kennedy’s “Consumer Bill of Rights,” formulated their own list of rights decades ago, it included “Right to choose. Consumers who want to purchase possibly harmful or hazardous products (such as food with additives) can do so.”
My advice is different regarding child consumers. There, choices need to be restricted and to the degree that the retailer can arouse guilt in a child for making unhealthy choices, it could help parents and guardians shape the child’s long-term eating preferences. This is an important issue where retailers can fulfill a social responsibility. The U.S. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion says that over the past thirty years, obesity rates among preteens has tripled and among adolescents has nearly quadrupled.
But when it comes to adults, the customer likes to be in control, so there are better health motivators than retailer-induced guilt.
Click below for more:
Balance Healthy and Indulgent in Merchandise
Have Fun Items Throughout the Store
Inform Consumers, But Don’t Intrude
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