Analyzing the Impact of Wal‐Mart Supercenters on Local Food Store Sales

What happens when IKEA comes to town?

“…Artz and Stone (2006) found weak effects on retail stores selling substitute goods in metropolitan compared to other areas.…”

“…Most found that new big-boxes reduced revenues and the number of retailers (Barnes et al 1996;Jones and Doucet 2000;Hernandez 2003;Artz and Stone 2006;Jia 2008). Basker (2005) found no effects on the revenues of stores with complementary goods, implying that the agglomeration effects were weak.…”

Estimating the costs and benefits of the closure of a local grocery store

“…Bergström [16] and Garvill et al [10]) show, among other things, that local stores in cities are not greatly affected by larger regional establishments, but that more rural grocery stores are. Studies from the United States also show a correlation between the opening of large supermarkets and the closure of smaller stores [17,18].…”

Global growth of “big box” stores and the potential impact on human health and nutrition

“…112 Despite a large body of work examining the impact of Wal-Mart's expansion on wages, jobs, and other food retailers, 70,98,[113][114][115][116] as far as can be determined, no independent research has examined shifts in food purchases at Wal-Mart stores over time or the role of WalMart stores as a source of energy and other key nutrients. Existing work has predominantly looked only at how the share of Wal-Mart supercenters in a geographical region relates to food purchases, rather than examining the purchases themselves or the actual nutrients purchased.…”

“…69 Other work has shown that the effect of supercenter entry on other grocery store sales is substantially bigger in nonmetropolitan areas. 70 The overall effect is to create pockets with minimal proximal food access, where residents must either pay higher prices at gas stations, convenience stores, or small grocers or have access to a vehicle and the time required to reach a major grocery outlet, 71 which is a major barrier for low-income households. 72,73 In addition, work from Sharkey et al 74 shows that Texas residents in more deprived neighborhoods and rural areas must travel farther to reach a supercenter, 75 although in Louisiana, income level is not associated with supercenter locations.…”