The Role of Ethnicity in the Geography of Consumption

Abstract

Two notable trends in immigrant gateway cities—the growth of immigrant-owned businesses and accelerated ethnic marketing efforts of mainstream firms—raise an interesting research question of how ethnicity interacts with accessibility in the geography of consumption. Given that many immigrants today are better educated and more affluent than their predecessors, and an ethnic business and its mass counterpart can differ little in size and product variety terms, it is intriguing to discover how urban consumers choose between businesses owned and operated by ethnic minorities and those in the mass market. Based on two surveys, this article compares the grocery shopping behavior of Chinese immigrants and the rest of the population in two study areas in one of the most culturally diverse urban regions of the world—Toronto, Canada. Although a large Chinese population and mainstream supermarkets are found in both locations, one of the study areas is characterized by a high concentration of Chinese supermarkets, and the other contains only one. Analyses show that Chinese and non-Chinese populations in Toronto exhibit distinct grocery shopping behaviors. Chinese supermarkets and mainstream supermarkets are complementary consumption sites for Chinese residents but independent ones for non-Chinese. The role of ethnicity/culture is strong. Recognizing the sociocultural embeddedness of immigrant shoppers and the cultural representation of ethnic retail spaces, this study raises the question of how effective ethnic marketing can be in the case of grocery retailing from the perspective of both mainstream and Chinese businesses, with implications for immigrant community development, urban retail planning, and national multicultural and integration policies.