Kids in a Candy Store: An Objective Analysis of Children’s Interactions with Food in Convenience Stores

• Main Authors: Christina McKerchar, Moira Smith, Ryan Gage, Jonathan Williman, Gillian Abel, Cameron Lacey, Cliona Ni Mhurchu, Louise Signal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-07-01
• Series: Nutrients
• Subjects: food availability; food marketing; childhood obesity; convenience stores; wearable cameras
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/7/2143

Increasing rates of childhood obesity worldwide has focused attention on the obesogenic food environment. This paper reports an analysis of children’s interactions with food in convenience stores. Kids’Cam was a cross-sectional study conducted from July 2014 to June 2015 in New Zealand in which 168 randomly selected children aged 11–14 years old wore a wearable camera for a 4–day period. In this ancillary study, images from children who visited a convenience store were manually coded for food and drink availability. Twenty-two percent of children (<i>n</i> = 37) visited convenience stores on 62 occasions during the 4-day data collection period. Noncore items dominated the food and drinks available to children at a rate of 8.3 to 1 (means were 300 noncore and 36 core, respectively). The food and drinks marketed in-store were overwhelmingly noncore and promoted using accessible placement, price offers, product packaging, and signage. Most of the 70 items purchased by children were noncore foods or drinks (94.6%), and all of the purchased food or drink subsequently consumed was noncore. This research highlights convenience stores as a key source of unhealthy food and drink for children, and policies are needed to reduce the role of convenience stores in the obesogenic food environment.