FLUNK FOOD

Amanda Chater

Supermarket retailers might learn a thing or two themselves as many schools re-open this year with new vending machine choices, more healthful lunch menus and new attitudes about childhood obesity. How these changes will influence students' purchase behavior out of the classroom is the question on the blackboard.

There are opportunities for traditional retailers, said Laurie Klein, vice president of Just Kid, a Stamford, Conn., research company. As a result of the changes, manufacturers have been compelled to provide schools with healthier products. "And that will probably have a trickle-down effect and you'll see retailers selling more of those products."

Given the tighter restrictions in school, however, there's always the chance kids will rebel at home, and cajole their parents into shopping for foods and beverages denied them in schools.

In a business where the first impulse is to promote whatever sells best, supermarkets might also have to take a leading role in helping schools and parents incorporate better diets for schoolchildren, said Ruth Jonen, president of the School Nutrition Association in Alexandria, Va.

"We should start young and build on that, like the ability to read," she said.