Grocery Chain Tests Marketing Concept

The New York Times today has an article on how Hannaford Brothers Company, owner of the grocery store chain, used a one-year experiment with a food "healthy" rating system:

The chain, the Hannaford Brothers Company, said that the program had a major impact on steering purchases in the expansive packaged-food section of the store, including cereals, soups and breads.

Not only is this of general interest to any food company, but it's interesting to see a company actually test a marketing concept. In this case, foods got a zero to three star rating. It worked best with packaged foods, less well with meats, and didn't have a lot of impact with produce, most of which got starred ratings.