Attracting Supermarkets to Inner-City Neighborhoods: Economic Development Outside the Box

Abstract

The paucity of accessible supermarkets is a continuing concern in inner-city communities. Based on a survey of planners in 32 communities, this article examines initiatives to encourage grocery retail investment, reasons for the existence or absence of initiatives, and factors in successful developments. This research shows that systematic, citywide grocery initiatives are rare, with such efforts limited to particular sites or developments. Reliance on private initiatives, absence of grassroots requests for action, and assignment of lower priority to grocery stores in commercial revitalization programs explain planner inaction. Successful initiatives are characterized by political leadership, competent public agency participation, and, often, partnerships with nonprofit agencies. This article also presents recommendations for community and economic development planners to increase grocery investment in underserved areas.Over the past 5 decades, supermarkets have abandoned the inner city for suburban and exurban locations, which offered more land for parking, easier loading and unloading by trucks, convenient access to highways and arterials, and a development context for much larger stores. Lacking conveniently located supermarkets, low-income urban residents typically pay more for groceries in nearby convenience stores, spend more time traveling to distant supermarkets, and possibly incur other costs related to forgone consumption or poor food habits developed as a result (). The lack of supermarkets also costs communities in reduced job opportunities, fewer multiplier effects and entrepreneurship opportunities that grocery stores typically generate, and lower support for community activities. Furthermore, society as a whole loses out when food stamps and other government-funded vouchers return less value in smaller stores than they might at full-service supermarkets.The reluctance of supermarkets to invest in urban areas has highlighted a range of perceptions and realities related to the so-called urban disadvantage. These include concerns related to the attractiveness of markets, land assembly and readiness for development, costs associated with urban store development and operation, and regulatory contexts that can facilitate or hinder speedy development. Emerging evidence, however, illuminates the strength of urban markets in general, documents greater interest in inner cities on the part of supermarkets due to suburban saturation,

Comparing Perception-Based and Geographic Information System (GIS)-Based Characterizations of the Local Food Environment

“…4,16,25,26,28 Sloane et al inventoried selected markets in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and found that low-fat dairy, whole grain products, and lean meats were significantly less available and of lower quality and less variety in areas of high African-American concentration 27 possibly because of the lack of supermarkets in these areas. 12,13,15,16,19,33,34 A survey of stores in New York also reported that only one in three smaller neighborhood stores sell reduced fat milk compared to nine in ten supermarkets, and less than a third carry fresh produce compared to 91% of the supermarkets. 19 Similarly, mean quality of fresh produce was significantly lower in the predominately African-American, low-SEP community where supermarkets are less likely to be located than in the racially heterogeneous, middle-income community.…”

Changes in neighbourhood food store environment, food behaviour and body mass index, 1981–1990

“…In particular, while there have been reports on the exodus of supermarkets from lower-income inner-city neighbourhoods starting in the 1960s 13 , there are few studies on secular changes in the neighbourhood food store environment in less urban areas.…”

“…In the USA, most of the studies that have documented a lack of access to fresh produce have related to residents of inner-city neighbourhoods; many of these neighbourhoods have lost chain supermarkets that moved to suburban areas. Over the past two to three decades, small corner markets and chain convenience stores established themselves in these low-income neighbourhoods 12,13 . Further, fast-food restaurants began to mark the American landscape.…”

Valuing All Knowledges Through an Expanded Definition of Access

“…Many studies, although not all, have suggested that having access to full-service supermarkets influences families' selection and consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, and thus affect their long-term health outcomes (Grigsby-Toussaint, Zenk, Odoms-Young, Ruggiero, & Moise, 2010;Pothukuchi, 2005;Raja, Yin, Roemmich, Ma, Epstein, Yadav, & Ticoalu, 2010). This is based on research that has found that supermarkets are the best sources of a variety of high-quality, healthful food at affordable prices throughout the year (Caspi, Kawachi, Subramanian, Adamkiewicz, & Sorensen, 2012;Laraia, Siega-Riz, Kaufman, & Jones, 2004).…”