The Effect of Grocery Shopping Frequency on the Healthfulness of Food Purchases

Abstract

This study measures the impact of shopping frequency on the healthfulness of food purchases. Using household level panel data on food purchases, I find that a higher shopping frequency leads to more healthful food purchases. A 10 percent increase in shopping trips during the course of a month, leads to a 3.4 to 4.8 percentage points’ increase in the share of expenditures on healthful foods. I further explore if the impact of interest is different for population subgroups that likely face higher monetary and/or time constraints. I find that while positive, the impact of shopping frequency on the healthfulness of food purchases is lower for subgroups such as the working-poor and single-headed working households with children, compared to the rest of the population. The results are robust across different econometric model specifications. Key-words: shopping frequency, food purchases, time constraints, diet quality. 1 Jeta Rudi is a PhD student in the Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. 2 Metin Cakir is an assistant professor in the Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.