BATH TOWNSHIP, MI – Should produce sell like candy? Of course! What’s stopping it? One Michigan mom is taking the initiative and trying to replace junk food with healthier options at one major regional retailer’s checkout stands.
Jane Kramer’s “Ask Meijer for Healthy Checkout Aisles” petition has garnered more than 400 signatures asking that the company “put customer health first by removing junk food from its checkout aisles.”
"I'm not trying to tell people what they should eat," Kramer said. "With all the health issues in our country, it increases the cost of healthcare. They can do so much better, it just has to be re-imagined and supportive."
Kramer started an initiative on Change.org in September of 2016, after becoming alarmed by the lack of healthy options and the effect time spent at the checkout stand had on her 13-year-old son. The initiative targets Meijer grocery stores throughout Michigan—as well as Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Kentucky.
"I started noticing the product in checkout as a new parent," Kramer said, in an ABC News report. "Before that, I didn't really pay attention to it. After we adopted, the grocery shopping experience just changed. Our only options were junk, and I wanted to be able to buy a banana or carrots."
Kramer initially made requests to Meijer’s customer service department five years ago, but she never received a response. After being told that she could not be put in touch with a representative from the company earlier this year, Kramer decided to draft the petition.
“I think if Meijer does it, other grocery stores will do it too,” she said.
Despite her disappointment with the unhealthy items at the company’s checkout stands, Kramer notes that she is a loyal customer and a fan of Meijer: "I like Meijer because it's close to my house, and I really like the employees. People say, 'Well, just go somewhere else.' Well, I could, but I don't want to.”
This isn't the first initiative to bring healthier options to the checkout stand; we previously reported on a Raley's campaign to improve its checkout stands' healthy options this November, among others.
Could bananas and oranges be replacing candy and gum in your local supermarket soon? With enterprising advocates of healthier food becoming more and more vocal, we can only hope.
