Perris Puts Health Rules Within Six Feet of Registers

Perris, California, became the third jurisdiction worldwide to require healthier checkout displays when its rule began in January 2024. Berkeley, California, and England had already adopted similar policies. The idea is to improve the kinds of foods and drinks placed near registers and, over time, support healthier eating. Still, it remains important to ask how much a store rule can change real-world choices.

Checkout policies do not all cover the same space. Berkeley and England apply nutrition standards across the entire checkout area. Perris chose a narrower limit. Its standards apply only to products placed within six feet of a register. That boundary matters because an item may be covered by the rule in one location but outside its reach in another.

Researchers used the rollout as a natural experiment. They collected baseline information in June 2023, then returned in June 2024, six months after the policy took effect. The study included all 13 Perris stores subject to the ordinance. It also included 51 matched stores in three comparison cities without a healthy checkout policy.

The team recorded 65,271 product facings, or visible product positions that shoppers could choose. They used a difference-in-differences analysis to compare changes in Perris with changes in the other stores. They checked whether facings met the standards within six feet of registers, beyond six feet, and across the whole checkout. They also sorted food and beverage facings inside the six-foot zone into categories that did and did not comply. This approach helps test whether changes align with the policy instead of assuming the rule caused every difference.