We examine the effect of supercenter market share on consumers' food‐at‐home purchasing habits in the United States. We measure healthfulness several different ways to ensure robustness, but all measurements place a greater value on fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains than on processed foods high in sugar and sodium. We find that from 1998–2006 consumers generally purchased less healthful foods at supercenters than they do at supermarkets. Moreover, a one‐percent increase in the local market share of supercenters results in a decrease in purchase healthfulness for groceries of 0.10 to 0.46 percent. This relationship is statistically significant and robust.

Neighborhood food environment factors, such as food desert status, were associated with obesity status even after we controlled for home food environment factors.

The U.S. dairy industry has seen major restructuring in recent decades. A sharp decline in the number of U.S. dairy farms and an increase in average herd sizes have accompanied exits, which have been concentrated among smaller herds. Given that more productive farms are better positioned to increase operation size and to continue operation, we hypothesize that the more technically efficient farms are better able to expand and also have stronger incentives to continue production. Using data from the USDA's 2010 ARMS Phase III, Dairy Production Practices and Costs and Returns Report, we estimate technical efficiency using stochastic production frontier analysis with endogenous inputs. The efficiency estimate is then incorporated into the analysis of exit intention and herd size. The results confirm our hypotheses that smaller and less efficient farms are more likely to exit and that more efficient dairy farms tend to expand herd size. Moreover, farms without successors but with older and more educated operators are more likely to exit. JEL classifications: D2, J2, Q12

A growing literature in health and nutrition suggests that healthy foods are less available and more expensive at nontraditional store formats such as supercenters, convenience stores, and drug stores. We use Nielsen Homescan data to investigate the relationship between store format and the healthfulness of consumers' grocery shopping. Accounting for a rich set of controls, as well as food retail market structure, we simultaneously estimate the healthfulness of consumers' food purchases and the shares of food expenditure at traditional and nontraditional store formations. We find that healthier food choices are generally associated with higher food expenditure shares at supermarkets and supercenters and lower shares at drug stores and convenience stores. In addition, market concentration has a negative effect on shopping healthfulness.