In the narrow corridor where retailers have long engineered desire, Berkeley attempted something quietly radical: removing the temptation before it could become a choice. Five years after becoming the first city to ban sugary items from checkout lanes, the data confirms that the policy reduced soda and candy sales — but only where stores chose to honor it. The experiment reveals a truth older than public health policy: a rule without enforcement is merely an aspiration, and the distance between law and behavior is measured in compliance.