Student Capstone: Cost Incentives for Healthy Foods - Implementation Results, Strategies, and Recommendations

By Sean Goodwin

The College of New Jersey, Sociology Department

Spring 2021

Sean is a senior at TCNJ majoring in sociology. Strong passion for social justice, equitable policy, and community work. Avid reader, hiker, activist, and writer. After graduation, looking forward to more involvement with organizations working to improve communities.

Expanding access to healthy food is a crucial step in building a healthier community and a goal that Healthier Jupiter has been committed to. Many consumers are deterred from buying healthier products due to the costs of those products. In response to this, the most feasible and proven way to increase consumers’ access to fruits and vegetables is through cost incentives. By allowing fruits and vegetables to be sold at lower costs, they can be made consistently available to wider portions of the community. Such measures have been very popular among consumers (Ni Mhurchu et al., 2012). Essential to their success, however, is participation by local retailers to provide incentivized products to consumers.

While consumers benefit from lower prices for healthy foods, retailers also stand to gain from participation in cost interventions. The increased customer interest in incentivized products generates increased stocking and sales of those products, so retailers see long-term economic gains just as consumers see improved health outcomes (Gittelsohn, Rowan, and Gadhoke, 2012). Systematic reports on cost incentives across many municipalities have shown that retailers large and small showed a strong willingness to participate in another incentive program (Bartlett et al., 2014).

There are a variety of types of cost incentives and implementation strategies to consider as well. All are effective, but would depend on community preferences and especially what would be most feasible for local businesses. Options include direct discounts upwards of 10% applied to the price of the product at checkout, or coupons or vouchers supplied to either the general consumer base or to specific consumers, such as SNAP recipients. Price matching for incentivized foods, such as $1 off of every $5 spent, has been effective too (Gittelsohn, Trude, and Kim, 2017). All of these policies have consistently been shown to provide more access to healthy foods and more business for participating retailers.

In order for Jupiter’s retailers to maximize their benefits from providing cost incentives for their healthy products, it would be important to consider aspects of their daily store operations that would affect sales of incentivized products. For example, considering the ways that targeted products could be promoted, or that the store’s participation in the program could be advertised, would be crucial to raising consumer awareness and enthusiasm about the program. Streamlining incentive provision with electronic cash registers could also help retailers take full advantage of a cost incentive program. In general, local businesses can best determine incentive types, amounts, and promotion based on trends in their customer base.

Considering these practices and reflecting on their own customer base, Jupiter’s food retailers can help us promote our local businesses and make healthier food options available to the whole community.

Please email healthierjupiter@htpbc.org for access to the full report.

References: 

Bartlett, Susan, Jacob Klerman, Parke Wilde, Lauren Olsho, Christopher Logan, Michelle Blocklin, Marianne Beauregard, and Ayesha Enver. “Evaluation of the Healthy Incentives Pilot (HIP): Final Report.” Prepared by Abt Associates for the US Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, September 2014, 73.

Gittelsohn, Joel, Angela Cristina Bizzotto Trude, and Hyunju Kim. “Pricing Strategies to Encourage Availability, Purchase, and Consumption of Healthy Foods and Beverages: A Systematic Review.” Preventing Chronic Disease 14, no. 107 (November 2017). https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2017/17_0213.htm.

Gittelsohn, Joel, Megan Rowan, and Preety Gadhoke. “Interventions in small food stores to change the food environment, improve diet, and reduce risk of chronic disease.” Preventing Chronic Disease 9, no. 59 (2012). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22338599/.

Ni Mhurchu, Cliona, Helen Eyles, Robyn Dixon, Leonie Matoe, Tasileta Teevale, and Patricia Meagher-Lundberg. “Economic Incentives to Promote Healthier Food Purchases: Exploring Acceptability and Key Factors for Success.” Health Promotion International 27, no. 3 (September 2012): 331–341. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21742702/.