"Rules" for grocery shopping

BizWeek bit on Marion Nestle and "supermarket IQ" :

"The Rules" For Eating Smarter
Noted author and nutritionist Marion Nestle talks about her latest book -- and how to boost your supermarket IQ

" After tackling weighty issues about food in her previous books -- Food Politics (2002) and Safe Food (2003) -- nutritionist Marion Nestle was surprised that people kept asking her a simple question: What should we eat? That refrain became the topic of her latest work, What To Eat (North Point Press). In it, Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, cuts through the marketing claims and maze of offerings in today's supermarkets to provide advice for making healthy choices. She spoke to Contributing Writer Amy Cortese about her findings"


Of note :

How should shoppers navigate the supermarket?
I call them "The Rules." Rule No. 1 is that supermarkets want customers to spend as much time as possible wandering the aisles because the more products they see, the more they buy. So it's best to stay out of the maze of the center aisles, where all the junk foods are, and just shop the perimeter, where the healthier, fresh foods are.

Rule No. 2 is that products in the best locations -- eye level, ends of aisles, cash registers -- sell best. So companies pay the supermarkets to slot their products in prime real estate. These products are mostly junk because they are the most profitable and most heavily advertised.