Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-16-2018
Abstract
Background
Excess 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.
Methods
We 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.
Results
Supermarket 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.
Conclusions
Understanding 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.
Included in
Community Health and Preventive Medicine Commons, Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition Commons, Health Communication Commons, Health Economics Commons
Comments
Originally published as Martinez, O., Rodriguez, N., Mercurio, A. et al. Supermarket retailers’ perspectives on healthy food retail strategies: in-depth interviews. BMC Public Health 18, 1019 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5917-4
This article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) License.The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.