The University of Guelph’s innovative Food Retail Lab was recently featured on the CBC Radio show Spark.

U of G food economist Mike von Massow explained that the Longo’s Food Retail Lab is a mock grocery store that allows University researchers to explore how shoppers behave while food shopping, including how product positioning and food packaging influences their choices.

The Retail Lab opened in 2017 and uses cameras and eye-tracking equipment to better understand consumer decision-making, shopping habits and reactions to food advertising.

Von Massow studies how people think about food. He is active in the interdisciplinary Guelph Food Waste Research Project as well as the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare.