How Big Are The Grocery Stores Going to Get?

By Kelli Calabrese

I live in Texas so I understand that things are BIGGER in Texas, but I question just how big the supermarkets are going to expand to. The other day I cruised down a couple of aisles just to see what was there. I found Dora the Explorer Gummy Snacks, Organic Pop Tarts, Scooby Do Go-Gurt, Cinnabun Cereal and literally tens of thousands of other non-foods. There was an entire aisle dedicated to diet foods and they consisted of items such as diabetic cookies, Slim Fast, Smart Food, Smart Water, low carb bars, low glycemic candy, and fat burning supplements. Hmm, I never remember my grandmother eating any of those foods and she lived to be 95 in complete health with no medication or assistance.

Every aisle end cap was stocked floor to ceiling with products from companies like Kraft and Nabisco such as Oreo’s and mac and cheese, peanut butter on crackers, Chips Ahoy and Snackwells – and of course they are all on “special”. I would bet that those eating the Snackwells and organic pop tarts are not feeling so special because they are no better off than the average American consuming a highly processed low nutritional value diet.

At the registers I can’t help but notice that the customers whose carts are overflowing with sports drinks and Lean Cuisines, are themselves overflowing from their clothing. They are the ones reading the covers of the magazines with the beautiful touched up models on the covers with headlines that read, "Fast Food That Won’t Make You Fat", "Lose 40 pounds in 21 Days”, “Cure Your Tummy Trouble", "Stop the Sugar Cravings for Good", “Put on 18 Pounds of Muscle in 2 Weeks” and "Get a Flat Belly in One Quick Move". As ridiculous as these headlines sound, they are real.

I want to steal Susan Powters line (for those of you old enough to remember) and jump up and shout "STOP THE INSANITY". When did we lose our common sense? At what point did people start believing that if they ate frozen fake food out of a box they would be healthy and lean? When did organic chocolate chip pancakes become the breakfast of champions? How do overweight people think they need to consume sports drinks when they do not engage in any sports?

Okay, now are you as fired up as me! Boy do we have job security! We do not need to be registered dieticians or degreed nutritionists (although I support that), we need to be teaching kindergarten nutrition. As I read the food logs of my campers weekly I can tell you that it’s rare that someone is doing all of the following correctly:

Eating 5 – 7 fruits and veggies daily
Consuming lean protein 3 meals a day
Eating 30+ grams of fiber a day
Drinking 8+ glasses of water daily
Choosing whole grains at each meal
Sleeping 7 hours a night
Managing Stress

Since clients are not managing to achieve those 7 health objectives, they are in their place consuming soda, gourmet coffees, highly sweetened desserts, drive through food, candy, late night low nutritional value eating and over all low quality and high quantity foods. There was one woman’s food log that for the entire week the only thing that remotely resembled a fruit or a vegetable was a strawberry Twizzler. And when I questioned the shake she was having most week nights, it was premium ice cream with whole milk and chocolate syrup – not exactly the kind of shake you and I had in mind.

About 7 years ago at Phil’s Personal Trainer Business Forum, he gave us the tools to conduct grocery shopping tours. I went home and committed to doing them. It was in the supermarket that clients would tell me what I had been sharing for months had been solidified. Visual learners especially enjoy the grocery shopping tour. One woman lost 23 pounds and got back to her pre-pregnancy weight after coming to my tour. That was when I contacted Phil and asked him if we could share this with those who were not at the Forum. We created a program called The Art of Grocery Shopping Tours and 7 Other Profitable Programs and many of the Be Betterites have been using it as a tool to educate clients, generate new leads and be positioned as an expert. I still conduct 10 sold out tours a year and each one opens up the minds of consumers as to how they should be eating versus how they are.

We have so much work to do in re-educating consumers. The forces are against us when you consider that food is EVERYWHERE. You can buy food when you get your car washed, pump gas, while waiting for a plane, at work, while driving, at your front door, at the movies, and anywhere you show up. There is no chance for you to starve if you have a few bucks. You can pick up a bag of peanut M&M’s anyplace in America.

We also have our work cut out for us when you consider consumers are getting their diet information from books, girlfriends, magazines, the internet, the guy at the gym, the woman in line a the pharmacy and any other place than a respected fitness professional. My advice would be to go back to basics and start with baby steps. If a clients diet is starting out as what we would grade an “F”, start with small commitments to move it closer to a “D” then a “C-“ and so on until they are moving closer to health.

The great news is that the potential to help our clients make significant changes in their diets and their lives are unlimited. Find out what they are willing to begin with and give them the tools and support to take those first steps towards clean eating. Those first successes will get the momentum going, build their trust in you and open the door for you to make even more dramatic improvements in their grocery shopping, eating and ultimately their lives.

The next time you are in the grocery store take notice of what’s in the shoppers carts and put your influence skills to the test in converting a grocery shopper to a thrilled client!