The Role of Social Issues on Food Procurement among Corner Store Owners and Shoppers

ABSTRACT

Objective: We assessed corner store shopper and owner perceptions, barriers, and enablers related to food procurement in a sample of neighborhood corner stores where over 50% of families are SNAP eligible. Design: We conducted semi-structured interviews to identify inventory stocking, shopping and marketing approaches, and perspectives on healthy eating. Participants: Five corner store owners and 20 corner store shoppers. Results: Corner store owners: 1) did not feel as though they belonged to the community where their corner store was located; 2) had difficulty in becoming authorized WIC retailers because of the perceived complexity of the process, and 3) stated tobacco products and hot food items are their best-selling items; fruits and vegetables were perceived as unmarketable. Corner store shoppers preferred shopping at local corner stores because: 1) lack of transportation made corner stores easier to access than full-service grocery stores; 2) hot foods are readily available and inexpensive; 3) some home kitchens lacked an oven or stovetop for meal preparation; 4) they need to shop daily for children or other family members. Conclusions: Social issues such as housing quality, corner store owner sense of community, and acculturation should be addressed when considering food environment in limited resource communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Food procurement
• SNAP
• community corner store
• healthy eating barriers
• low income families

Disclosure Statements

There is no conflict of interest.

Contributions

Rhonda BeLue – principal investigator, study design, article writing

Fatou NDao – instrument design, data collection, article writing

Stephanie McClure – data analysis, article writing

Suzanne Alexander – data collation, article editing

Renee Walker – study design, article writing

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the Penn State Clinical and Translational Science InstitutePennsylvania State University-CTSI [None].