James Tenser

Buyer Beware Weight Loss Product Claims

July 16, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Those quick-weight-loss diet books and 10-minute workouts have transcended to a whole line of simple weight-loss products. The latest includes a line of calorie-burning underwear, joining such products as toning shoes and fitness video games. Should retailers have any qualms about selling weight-loss products if their claims are suspect?      [more...]

Certainly retailers have every right to edit their product offerings according to their moral convictions or those of their shoppers. Ukrop's supermarkets famously did not offer alcoholic beverages in its stores, for example.

It's also quite acceptable to stay out of certain categories as a matter of market positioning. Not every retailer offers tobacco products or prescription drugs. Fewer offer firearms. Those that do are not required to endorse or guarantee the efficacy of the items they offer for sale. Those claims are the domain of the product manufacturer.

The market has been flooded with fad diet books, crappy exercise devices, "fat-free" and "sugar-free" foods, and self-styled weight loss gurus for at least as long as I've been conscious on this earth. Retailers don't invent this stuff and we can't blame them for selling it - even when the manufacturers make wild and unsubstantiated claims.