Eat Right-Live Well! Supermarket Intervention Impact on Sales of Healthy Foods in a Low-Income Neighborhood

Objective: To evaluate a multifaceted supermarket intervention promoting healthier alternatives to commonly purchased foods. Design: Sales of 385 foods promoted between July and October, 2012 in the Eat Right-Live Well! intervention supermarket were compared with sales in a control supermarket. Setting: Two supermarkets in geographically separate, low-income, urban neighborhoods. Participants: One control and 1 intervention supermarket. Intervention: Product labeling, employee training, community outreach, and in-store promotions, including taste tests. Main Outcome Measures: Number of items sold; absolute and percent differences in sales. Analysis: Difference-in-difference analyses compared absolute and percent changes between stores and over time within stores. Sub-analyses examined taste-tested items and specific food categories, and promoted items labeled with high fidelity. Results: Comparing pre- and postintervention periods, within-store difference-in-differences for promoted products in the intervention store (25,776 items; 23.1%) was more favorable than the control (9,429 items; 6.6%). The decrease in taste-tested items' sales was smaller in the intervention store (946 items; 5.5%) than the control store (14,666 items; 26.6%). Increased sales of foods labeled with high fidelity were greater in the intervention store (25,414 items; 28.0%) than the control store (7,306 items; 6.3%). Conclusions and Implications: Store-based interventions, particularly high-fidelity labeling, can increase promoted food sales.