When Susan Stave walked into the Kiwi store on Konovskate in Oslo on Wednesday morning, she was struck by what greeted her at the entrance.
There was a cart filled to overflowing.
Nearby were other items on display; Chocolate Spreads, Red Bull, Safari Biscuits and Fun Juice.
Stave products and how they were delivered to the store.
– Special that I had to physically walk the shopping cart.
– The entry area and the area near the checkout are good areas for impulse purchases, so they choose to display obviously unhealthy items in this area, he adds.
I think it goes against the slogan
Stave has a master’s degree in community nutrition and works at BarnemedPine, a company that tries to make better food choices easier for parents.
It’s not the first time she’s reacted to how stores display items, but this case seems serious to her.
– Kiwis try to give the impression that they work with public health and they have “health for people” as their slogan, but presenting things this way is not health for people.
Review: Susan Stave believes Kiwi is violating its own message of providing “health for people”. Photo: Maria Uldal
He believes the way Kiwi and other grocery chains often display products needs to be turned upside down.
– I feel that when you go to the store you should choose not to buy unhealthy products because it will be thrown in your face. They should display healthy products in places that promote sales, not unhealthy products, he believes.
Stave emphasizes that the criticism is not just about this one trolley. She believes the food landscape has changed.
– Unhealthy food is sold everywhere and we have to unconsciously decide whether to buy it or not. That is the problem.
Kiwi is self-critical
TV2 has contacted the store manager at the Kiwi store in question, who referred the chain’s communications department to respond to enquiries.
Christine Agwak Arwin, communications manager at Kiwi, responds in an email:
– As for the shopping cart, it’s filled with leftover Chorland chips, orange flavor and Easter chocolate. It’s proven to be a flavor combination that’s particularly appealing to those who are curious and somewhat difficult to sell.
Unfortunate: Kiwi’s communications manager Christine Akwak Arwin agrees with Susan Stave that the trolley’s location is unfortunate. Photo: Gorm Roseth / TV2
Therefore, Arwin writes, the food was placed in a crisp cart and reduced in price so that it wouldn’t go to waste.
However, Kiwi is self-critical of the location of the shopping cart.
– We fully agree that this is an unfortunate place to be. The store listens to the customer and the cart is already moved.
– What kind of guidelines does Kiwi have for displaying items?
– Most products have fixed locations on shelves. The fruit and vegetable department is the heart of our stores and the best location. Additionally, we have what we call bins, where we like to put dry goods for sale.
Useful solution
– These are examples of products that are called shock sellers: products that the public is very familiar with because they are displayed in this way.
That’s what Trond Blindheim says after seeing pictures from the Kiwi store. He is a Lecturer in Marketing at Christiania University College.
Blindheim says shock sellers pay well for grocery chains and brand suppliers.
– It is a very effective way to sell products. Chains are often paid in the form of discounts by brand suppliers and give them good exposure space in stores, and good exposure space leads to increased sales.
Tool: Trond Blindheim, a marketing expert at Christiania University College, says so-called shock sellers are useful for both suppliers and grocery chains. Photo: Høyskolen Kristiania
Blindheim explains that displaying items at the checkout gives consumers plenty of time to look at and luxuriate in them while they’re standing in line, increasing the likelihood that they’ll be added to the shopping basket.
– And if an item is displayed in two locations in a store, it can roughly increase the item’s rotation speed. 20 percent, he adds, compared to when the product is displayed in only one place.
Blindheim agrees with Stave that by featuring crisps in the entryway, Kiwi is breaking its own message that it wants to be the best in fruits and vegetables. But it is clear that Kiwi is not breaching the guidelines by doing so.
– I think it should be good. The right to market a product should be equal to the right not to buy the product. There are certain rules of business ethics, but these examples are not affected by them.
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