Guess what newly published research has unveiled Americans are addicted to. No, it isn't junk food, Netflix, or mere smartphone use, though I'm sure a case can be made for those! Americans are addicted to tracking packages. Indeed, people have developed an acute obsession for tracking the status of their packages. So much so, that is has become an addiction. According to a new study, 60% of people who make purchases online check their delivery status daily, if not multiple times in a single day. The study even found that over 80% of online shoppers have experienced anxiety when packages fail to arrive on time. Two in three online shoppers look out their window to watch out for deliveries, and 65% of study participants feel delivery tracking has become an addiction, stating that they expect packages to be delivered within three days of ordering. In addition, 57% said package tracking is “very important” to them, while 29% refuse to purchase something online if they can’t track i...

Can you guess where people buy most of their junk food? Chances are that fast-food restaurants like McDonald's and Burger King come to mind. A new study described in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition , however, reveals that U.S. adults buy the bulk of their empty-calorie foods and sugar-sweetened beverages at grocery stores and supermarkets. The new findings challenge the "food desert" hypothesis, which states that a lack of access to supermarkets and grocery stores in some underserved communities worsens the obesity crisis by restricting people's access to healthy foods. In other words, contrary to popular belief, access to healthy foods in a supermarket does not hinder Americans' consumption of empty calories. The study looked at data from 4,204 adults who reported their daily food intake in two nonconsecutive 24-hour periods in 2011 and 2012. The analysis determined that nearly half (46.3 percent) of U.S. adults consume sugar-sweetened b...

According to new research from the University at Buffalo School of Management published in the  Journal of Retailing , even health-conscious consumers continue to buy some less-healthy foods. The study found that despite the fact that consumers are concerned about healthy eating, junk food still winds up in their shopping carts. What people say they want to eat and what they actually buy aren't always in agreement. As the researchers point out, consumers make tradeoffs on healthy and unhealthy food to varying degrees. The researchers analyzed two years' worth of scanner data across more than 70 stores of a U.S. retailer as well as survey responses from 400 of the chain's shoppers to determine if consumers consciously balanced their health concerns with their actual food purchases. The study divided consumers into three groups using a mathematical model based on their concerns and attitudes: the first group consisted of health-driven shoppers, the second took a mor...