摘要
Weight management is affected by food choice. It is important to show how challenging an environment a grocery store is from a weight management perspective. The subjects were recruited by delivering 1,000 questionnaires in November-December 2009 at the K-Citymarket Kolmisoppi, Kuopio, Finland. The subjects （n = 36, age 18-65） were recruited to represent consumers of varied experience in weight management. The subjects＇ shopping behavior was studied using verbal analysis protocol combined with wireless audio-visual observation, questionnaires and interviews in the K-Citymarket in April-May 2010. For two consecutive tasks, the subjects were given a shopping list of I 1 food categories. During the first task, they were asked to select a product they usually buy and during the second task, a product they would use for weight management. The subjects made their decisions routinely as there were none stimuli available at a supermarket in relation to weight management choices apart from versatile, abundant and small-sized labels all over food packages. The subjects had challenges while choosing food, such as the time taken （maximum 225 s） to find a suitable product among all the options of a wide product category, for example, 459 ready meals per product category with the energy variation from 30 to 330 kcal/100 g, and understanding all package labels properly, such as the GDA-label in relation to the nutrition content table. The subjects had practical suggestions, such as colored labels in shelves, how consumer-oriented marketing communication and services should be developed and provided by retailers cooperatively with health-care actors to promote consumers＇ awareness of food choices from the weight management perspective in groceries. For a consumer, it is important to be able to easily find and compare suitable products from a weight management point of view. Successful consumer marketing will achieve desirable results for manufacturers, retailers and consumers as well as benefit the society＇s welfare in the long run.
