Healthy Food Corners as Spatial Nudges: Consumer Awareness, Perceived Necessity, and Design Preferences in...

Healthy Food Corners (HFCs) are zones in Korean convenience stores meant to promote healthier choices, yet how consumers respond to them remains unclear. Drawing on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, this study examined consumer awareness and the perceived necessity of HFCs, identified preferences for their spatial and visual design, and exploratorily tested whether perceived necessity links awareness to healthy-food purchase intention.

A cross-sectional online survey of 409 convenience store users aged 14-59 years in the Seoul metropolitan area was analyzed using hierarchical regression and bootstrapping mediation.

A descriptive contrast was observed between awareness and perceived necessity: awareness of the HFC was low (three-item composite M = 2.90 ± 1.66), whereas perceived necessity was substantially higher (M = 4.86 ± 1.25), indicating that consumers valued the concept even with limited prior exposure. Consumers preferred HFCs in ready-to-eat refrigerator sections, with clear zoning labels, horizontal grouping, green color schemes, and eye-level placement, and these preferences differed by age. In an exploratory mediation analysis, awareness predicted perceived necessity, which in turn strongly predicted purchase intention; the indirect effect was significant (0.188, 95% CI [0.128, 0.251]) while the direct effect was non-significant, a pattern consistent with full mediation. Because perceived necessity was assessed with a single item, this pathway is interpreted cautiously. Purchase intention was self-reported rather than behaviorally assessed.

Overall, the findings suggest that HFCs may function as distinct, strategically positioned spatial nudges; however, design recommendations are based on consumer-stated preferences and require confirmation through behavioral research. The results have implications for food environment policy in Korea, with the caveat that generalizability to other countries and retail systems warrants caution.