Berkeley Checkout Law Cut Small-Package Candy Sales 43%

Small-package candy sales at Berkeley, California, supermarkets fell an estimated 43% after the city began enforcing its healthy checkout law in 2022, according to a study published in The Lancet Public Health.

Researchers at Boston University and the University of California, Davis, produced the figure by comparing Berkeley sales before and after enforcement with sales over the same period in three other California cities. The law keeps high-sugar foods out of checkout lanes at large stores.

The restriction does not limit candy sales elsewhere in the store. The study found lower sales of small-package candy — bars and packets of the kind typically stocked at checkout — but no significant decline in candy sales overall.

"Our findings suggest that healthy checkout policies can help reduce impulsive purchases and even encourage healthier snack choices," Justin White, a Boston University associate professor and co-author of the paper, said in a post from BU's School of Public Health.

The Berkeley results give retailers and CPG marketers a data point on how checkout placement drives impulse purchases. A 43% drop in small-format candy sales at the lane, with no overall decline in candy purchases, indicates shoppers who want candy still buy it — just not at the register.

The study arrives as federal regulators move to change how packaged foods communicate nutrition on shelf. A proposed rule from the Food and Drug Administration would add a front-of-package nutrition label showing the per-serving percentage of added sugars, saturated fat and sodium, along with a "low," "medium" or "high" rating for each.

The FDA aims to finalize the rule in December. Larger companies would have three years to comply and smaller companies four, per reporting by Packaging Digest.

For marketers of checkout-adjacent products, the combination of local placement restrictions and incoming front-of-pack labeling signals shrinking real estate for impulse-driven sales of high-sugar items — and a growing case for positioning healthier snacks where the candy racks used to be.