Abstract
BackgroundExcess calorie consumption and poor diet are major contributors to the obesity epidemic. Food retailers, in particular at supermarkets, are key shapers of the food environment which influences consumers’ diets. This study seeks to understand the decision-making processes of supermarket retailers—including motivators for and barriers to promoting more healthy products—and to catalogue elements of the complex relationships between customers, suppliers, and, supermarket retailers.MethodsWe recruited 20 supermarket retailers from a convenience sample of full service supermarkets and national supermarket chain headquarters serving low- and high-income consumers in urban and non-urban areas of New York. Individuals responsible for making in-store decisions about retail practices engaged in online surveys and semi-structured interviews. We employed thematic analysis to analyze the transcripts.ResultsSupermarket retailers, mostly representing independent stores, perceived customer demand and suppliers’ product availability and deals as key factors influencing their in-store practices around product selection, placement, pricing, and promotion. Unexpectedly, retailers expressed a high level of autonomy when making decisions about food retail strategies. Overall, retailers described a willingness to engage in healthy food retail and a desire for greater support from healthy food retail initiatives.ConclusionsUnderstanding retailers’ in-store decision making will allow development of targeted healthy food retail policy approaches and interventions, and provide important insights into how to improve the food environment.
Highlights
Excess calorie consumption and poor diet are major contributors to the obesity epidemic
Supermarkets were defined using the standards set by the New York City Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) Program, which characterizes them as full-service stores offering groceries, meat, and produce, and with at least 6000 square feet of sales floor [29]
Using online surveys and in-depth interviews with supermarket retailers in New York State (NYS), this study examined supermarket retailers’ perceptions of healthy food retail, the factors that influence their store-level decision-making processes, and their complex relationships within the food industry
Summary
Excess calorie consumption and poor diet are major contributors to the obesity epidemic. Mostly examining small food stores, suggests that food retailers are challenged by higher costs, limited demand, and few supplier incentives for more healthy foods [18,19,20]. Within this body of research, few have sought to uncover food retailers’ perspectives on healthy food retail and their stocking practices [18, 19, 21, 22], and even fewer have used a qualitative methodology to do so [19, 22]. Like most other food retailer studies in public health, the aforementioned work only sampled small food store retailers [19, 22] It is not clear how transferrable their findings are to supermarkets, which have a different business structure compared to small food stores
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