We all have a story to tell. My husband and I adopted our son from another country in 2008. He was five years old and knew only a handful of words in English – apple, pear, banana. We didn’t adopt because we are good people, but rather because we wanted to become parents. A lot of things in our life instantly changed with the introduction of a five-year-old, one of them being our eating habits. Our son came to us with well-established food preferences and all to the credit of those who had cared so well for him, he was crazy about fruits and vegetables. He ate tomatoes as if they were apples and cucumbers as if they were bananas. He ate almost any veggie we gave him and any and all fruit. So it was only natural that we were buying and eating more of both. It was fun to go through the produce department with him, but the whole grocery shopping experience changed. My 30-minute trips turned to an hour plus, not because he was misbehaving, but because he asked a lot of questions, had to take bathroom breaks, and wanted to walk instead of sit in the cart – normal things. So it was often the case that we were exhausted and a little cranky by the time we got to checkout. This didn’t make him a “brat” as has been suggested in response to this petition. He was just tired. And he was five. My son wasn’t familiar with American candy and ignored it completely. He never begged me for any of the products in checkout. He didn’t know what they were. He simply needed something to eat - and so did I. That’s when I started to look at checkout aisles in a whole new light. There were twenty-two aisles of candy, soda, and junk food and not one piece of fruit or anything healthy that either of us wanted to eat. I would open a box of crackers from time to time, but I was in awe of the overwhelming amount of junk. How had I not seen it before? Surely we couldn’t be the only ones that wanted something better to eat! How did this happen? As my son learned English and started to read, the trips through checkout became even more interesting. It would have been a luxury to look at children’s books while we waited in line as we both love books, but instead his eyes would be drawn to demoralizing pictures and he would ask me about words that I was planning to teach him – later - at a time and place of my choosing. As a parent, I felt that was my right. I had walked by these magazines a thousand times before, but seeing them through his eyes stopped me in my tracks. Every other part of the grocery store was welcoming and enjoyable. I could avoid the aisles I wanted and we were starting to establish a routine. However, once we got to checkout, the whole “family-friendly” experience quickly ended. Even when my son acquired a taste for American candy and asked me for it from time to time, I never had trouble telling him “no” and he never had a tantrum as a result. Tantrums elsewhere, sure, but not at checkout. I just got lucky. However, a lot of kids do have meltdowns over candy and a lot of parents are annoyed for being put in this position at checkout. That DOESN’T make them bad kids and it DOESN’T make them bad parents! And yet I find it so interesting that this is the argument some people, even other parents, are making against the case for healthy checkout aisles. They say parents “need to parent”, “grow a backbone”, “do your job”, “stop whining”, etc., etc. They say candy and tabloids are “teachable moments”. I find this last statement to be the most insulting – that parents and children benefit from having the same moments in checkout, week after week, in addition to all the other moments we have in the store before we get to checkout and everywhere else we go every minute of the day. Why are we “bad parents” for not wanting to navigate around junk in the checkout aisle of a store where we spend hundreds of dollars a month – especially when we could be surrounding ourselves with healthier options for ourselves and our kids? Well, I think the joke is on us and I’ll be the first to admit that I was duped, too, for a time. Marketers know that we are often stressed and mentally fatigued by the end of our shopping trip and the sugary products they place there are specifically targeted to this weakness. It’s human nature – and we have the studies to prove it. I imagine them sitting in a room somewhere, falling off their chairs in laughter, talking about how clever it is to pit children against their parents in checkout aisles. Candy – tired children – tired parents. How can the outcome be beneficial to anyone but the candy and soda companies? It’s like asking an alcoholic to wait in a checkout line filled with an array of beautifully displayed liquor bottles every time they go to the store – BUT with the mentality, will-power, and maturity of a three-year-old! The system is purposely set up for defeat, and parents and kids are among those who are set up to lose. But the real travesty is that we’re blaming each other as parents, blaming ourselves, and blaming kids for not being able to handle it. This no doubt is giving the candy and soda industry leaders the biggest laugh. Sure, we get through it, but the real question is why are we putting the responsibility solely on parents and children? Why aren’t we asking these industries to take responsibility for how they market to kids at checkout? Instead, we have parents telling other parents to “leave your kids at home”, “use curbside”, “just say no”. The suggestion that parents should leave their kids at home or use curbside just to avoid the checkout aisle at a FAMILY-FRIENDLY grocery store is beyond me. And parents DO say “no”. That is not the issue. I called Meijer five years ago asking for a “family-friendly” aisle, but I only got as far as customer service. The idea was pushed aside by parenthood, my career, and cancer. My son is now thirteen and a huge help with grocery shopping. We can make it through the store in under 30 minutes, he’s old enough to understand and talk about the tabloid headlines with me, and he grabs an apple from the bag as soon as I’ve paid. We have managed just fine over the years and it "didn't kill us", but it didn’t stop me from wanting to provide something better for other families and for younger children - and ultimately for everyone! This past September I called Meijer again asking to speak to someone in corporate and was told it wasn’t allowed. I decided a petition was the only way to show Meijer that there was support for such an aisle. I originally wrote it for a few “family-friendly” aisles. However, after discussions with CSPI and doing my own research on obesity, product placement, sugar, and healthcare costs, I decided to ask for all healthy aisles. It didn’t happen overnight. It took a while before I could wrap my head around it. However, the further back I stepped and the more research I did, the more I could see that it wasn’t just about families. And it was definitely NOT about anyone's parenting skills. It’s about addressing the serious obesity issue we are facing as a nation, how junk food and soda are being aggressively marketed to us (specifically children) everywhere we go, and about encouraging and offering healthier food options for everyone. In the end, Meijer will do what it wants. I realize that changing all the checkouts to healthy aisles may not be as manageable for them as it is for companies like Aldi. Though it never hurts to ask, right? At the very least, I'm hoping Meijer will take steps towards creating some healthy checkout aisles so they can catch up to and compete with the many other grocery stores already doing so! I would love to hear YOUR story and why you are petitioning. You can post in the community comments section, on the healthy checkouts FB page, or email me at healthycheckouts@gmail.com. Respectfully, Jane Kramer