Back in January, we shared the news that Hershey was looking toward the future and thinking about ways to make impulse candy purchases part of consumers’ shopping routines we use more self-checkout options, or have entire orders prepared for us to pick up or have delivered. They’re not alone, it turns out.

“When you go to a store you look at your cellphone, right? You’re actually not even paying attention to the display,” an executive with Mondelez asked AdAge rhetorically. I glance at the impulse items, and periodically pick up a lip balm. Sorry not sorry, snack companies.

Other than vending machine, how can snack companies put us in the habit of grabbing snacks wherever we see them? How about an Amazon Dash button that you can impusively push to have the company send you packs of gum? What if restaurants and fast-food or fast casual eateries had mint for purchase at the checkout? These are all ideas that snack giants like Mondelez and Hershey are testing. There was briefly an experiment where Uber drivers could deliver gum and mints, among other items, on demand.

Apparently, we all have such poor impulse control that we simply need to have sweets and snacks put in front of our faces, and we’ll buy ’em.

Brands Acting on Impulse to Fill the In-Store Checkouts Void [AdAge]

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