Why Veggie Aisles at Supermarkets Could Start Looking More Like Junk Food Aisles

Next time you go to the grocery store, bags of carrots might come in flavors like “chili lime” and look suspiciously like packets of potato chips. At least, that’s the idea behind Bolthouse Farms’ new campaign to get kids to eat more veggies.

NPR reports the company is rolling out products like these carrot “Veggie Snackers” and tubes of pureed fruit to market the healthy foods to children, designing the packaging and aisle layouts to look more like the candy section than produce shelves.

Laura Karet, CEO of Giant Eagle, told NPR that these child produce stations are a “win-win.” Giant Eagle is installing these kid-friendly sections in about 400 stores in the mid-Atlantic and Ohio, and Walmart plans to implement them in 1,500 stores later this year.

Jeff Dunn, CEO of Bolthouse, explained to NPR that the “Veggie Snacker” carrots “give you that crunch and flavor” of chips, and that you’ll “get that same sensory [experience] you get with salty snacks.”

Now it just remains to be seen whether hungry kids will agree.