Assessing changes in the food retail environment during the COVID-19 pandemic: opportunities, challenges, and lessons learned

Abstract

Background COVID-19 mitigation strategies have had an untold effect on food retail stores and restaurants. Early evidence from New York City (NYC) indicated that these strategies, among decreased travel from China and increased fears of viral transmission and xenophobia, were leading to mass closures of businesses in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The constantly evolving COVID −19 crisis has caused research design and methodology to fundamentally shift, requiring adaptable strategies to address emerging and existing public health problems such as food security that may result from closures of food outlets. Objective We describe innovative approaches used to evaluate changes to the food retail environment amidst the constraints of the pandemic in an urban center heavily burdened by COVID-19. Included are challenges faced, lessons learned and future opportunities. Methods First, we identified six diverse neighborhoods in NYC: two lower-resourced, two higher-resourced, and two Chinese ethnic enclaves. We then developed a census of food outlets in these six neighborhoods using state and local licensing databases. To ascertain the status (open vs. closed) of outlets pre-pandemic, we employed a manual web-scraping technique. We used a similar method to determine the status of outlets during the pandemic. Two independent online sources were required to confirm the status of outlets. If two sources could not confirm the status, we conducted phone call checks and/or in-person visits. Results The final baseline database included 2585 food outlets across six neighborhoods. Ascertaining the status of food outlets was more difficult in lower-resourced neighborhoods and Chinese ethnic enclaves compared to higher-resourced areas. Higher-resourced neighborhoods required fewer phone call and in-person checks for both restaurants and food retailers than other neighborhoods. Conclusions Our multi-step data collection approach maximized safety and efficiency while minimizing cost and resources. Challenges in remote data collection varied by neighborhood and may reflect the different resources or social capital of the communities; understanding neighborhood-specific constraints prior to data collection may streamline the process.

Restaurants’ Solvency in Portugal during COVID-19

“…In addition, the risk variable can also affect the profitability of firms and increase the probability of insolvency of restaurant companies (Borde 1998). Russo et al (2022) confirm that COVID-19 impact mitigation strategies in restaurants have produced quite positive effects; moreover, according to Madeira et al (2021), restaurant managers could already know how to deal with adverse financial situations, due to the different crises they previously faced.…”

Pandemic and prejudice: Revisiting Bogardus’s social distance concept in a time of COVID-19

“…In reality, businesses in Chinatowns across the world were heavily negatively impacted by the emergence of COVID-19, even prior to formal restrictions or “lockdowns” being implemented. This was likely to be, at least in part, driven by prejudicial attitudes toward Chinese people, awakened by the virus (Hartke, 2022; Ong et al, 2020; Russo et al, 2022; Taylor, 2021). With an understanding of the real, relatively high COVID-19 threat at the time, the COVID-19 Social Distance Scale may have captured attitudes that were precisely being enacted at the time of the study.…”

A qualitative study to inform the development of a subsidized community-supported agriculture program for Chinese Americans in Brooklyn, New York, U.S

“…The program’s development required extensive input from community partners and population of interest before it was piloted, including input on food preferences, cost, and interest in a paired educational component. Other formative research included input from a Community Advisory Board, quantitative surveys on food preferences among community members, including a comprehensive needs assessment, ( Ðoàn et al, 2022 ) participatory group model building workshops, ( Chebli et al, 2023 ) neighborhood audits of the food retail environment, ( Ali et al, 2021 , Yi et al, 2022 , Russo et al, 2022 ) and consultation with partner organizations. Four organizations were selected as partners for this program based on their status as trusted community leaders and experience with nutrition-related work: 1) Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, a non-profit organization with extensive experience with CSAs and efforts related to increasing access to CSAs among low-income and limited English proficiency communities; 2) Chinese American Planning Council (CPC), a key community-based organization partner with experience advising on adaptation and implementation activities in the Chinese community; 3) The Table at NYU Langone Brooklyn Family Health Centers (The Table), a client-choice food pantry, and 4) Brooklyn Grange, a farming organization that has done extensive work with CSAs .…”