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A large proportion of convenience store purchases are impulse buys. Be Good to Yourself provides an incentive program and a visual reminder system at the point of weakness to encourage consumers to choose snacks more consistent with their long-term health and lifestyle goals.

Be Good to Yourself

How might we encourage individuals to choose WHOLE GRAINS and other HEALTHY FOOD products at convenience stores?

Nudging with VISUAL CUES and INCENTIVES: A display near the checkout counter keeps a running tally of whole grain products purchased and includes a card for customers to take.

This card includes a sheet of stickers as well as a discount for whole grain purchases.

Customers place the reminder stickers of their choosing on their credit cards and then see these visual cues every time they are

Improving health in the LONG-RUN by changing PRESENT behavior: People want to change their behavior in regards to how they eat. They want to avoid the well-known, long-term consequences of unhealthy eating, but are constantly confronted with unhealthy options—especially in convenience stores where snacks are often bought on impulse.

This project helps in two ways: ONE: Convenience stores will have new tools to promote healthy options.

TWO: At the point of impulse purchases, consumers will be provided with several visual reminders of the snack choices most consistent with their long-term health and lifestlye goals.

Moments of WEAKNESS lead to UNHEALTHY choices: Impulse buyers respond to boredom, waiting in line, and environmental cues by purchasing those products that seem in the moment to be the most attractive. Often these snacks would not be the first choices of these customers if they were allowed to choose in a less tempting environment.

Additionally, individuals often follow the lead of those around them when faced with many different choices.

Encouraging WHOLE GRAIN and HEALTHY snacks: By providing visual cues and incentives at the moment of the impulse purchase decision— stickers on credit cards, a whole grain purchases count display, and a reward card—we hope to nudge individuals to increase consumption of whole grain and other healthier products in this setting.

MEASURING the IMPACT: In field testing, there was a trend toward individuals choosing healthier products simply when the image of a scale was present. It is likely that this impact will be more marked when images are individually chosen and placed by the consumers themselves on their credit cards, and with the additional aspects of the Be Good to Yourself initiative.

Once implemented in stores, sales of whole grain products can be measured and compared before and after the implementation of the project.

An increase by 10% would be significant. In the longer term, sales of other healthy food products could also be measured.

Additionally, the whole grain purchase count can be recorded daily and trends in purchasing can be observed as the initiative gains momentum.