Skip directly to search Skip directly to A to Z list Skip directly to navigation Skip directly to page options Skip directly to site content

Retail Food Stores: Grocery Stores/Supermarkets and Small Food Stores

Strategies to increase access to healthy food in the consumer environment include changes inside existing food outlets by creating small retail locations such as convenience stores and produce stands, or by increasing outlets in the neighborhood environment, such as grocery stores and supermarkets:

Grocery Stores and Supermarkets

Small Retail Locations

Resource Library/ White Papers

Below are general resources for improving access to healthy food. Additional resources can be found on the grocery stores and supermarkets and small retail locations web pages.

A Place for Healthier Living: Improving Access to Physical Activity and Healthy Foods. Available at: http://www.policylink.org/sites/default/files/PLACEFORHEALTHIERLIVING_FINAL.PDF [PDF - 8 MB].

Access to healthy foods in low income neighborhoods: opportunities for Public Policy Rudd Report, Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, Yale University. Available at: http://www.ct.gov/dph/lib/dph/hems/nutrition/pdf/yale_rudd_center_access_to_healthy_foods_report_2008.pdf [PDF - 177 KB].

Journal Articles

Cheadle A, Psaty BM, Curry S, et al. Community-level comparisons between the grocery store environment and individual dietary practices. Prev Med 1991;20(2):250–61.

Eisenhauer E. In poor health: supermarket redlining and urban nutrition. GeoJournal 2001;53(2):125.

Giang T et al. Closing the grocery gap in underserved communities: the creation of the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative. Journal of Public Health Management Practices 2008;14(3):272–79.

Glanz K and Yaroch A. Strategies for increasing fruit and vegetable intake in grocery stores and communities: policy, pricing, and environmental change. Preventive Medicine 2004; 39:S75–S80.

Laraia BA, Siega-Riz AM, Kaufman JS, Jones SJ. Proximity of supermarkets is positively associated with diet quality index for pregnancy. Prev Med 2004;39(5):869–75.

Larson N. Neighborhood environments: disparities in access to healthy foods in the U.S. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2009;36(1): 74-81.e10.

Moore L. et al. Comparing perception-based and geographic information system (GIS)-based characterizations of the local food environment. Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine 2008; 206-216.

Moore LV, Diez-Roux AV, Nettleton JA, Jacobs DR. Associations of the local food environment with diet quality—a comparison of GIS and survey assessments: the multiethnic study of atherosclerosis . Am J Epidemiol 2008: 167(8):917-24.

Moore LV, Roux AVD. Associations of neighborhood characteristics with the location and type of food stores. Am J Public Health. 2006;96(2):325–31.

Morland K, Wing S, Diez Roux A, Poole C. Neighborhood characteristics associated with the location of food stores and food service places. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2002;22(1):23–9.

Morland K, Wing S, Diez Roux A. The contextual effect of the local food environment on residents’ diets: the atherosclerosis risk in communities study. Am J Public Health 2002;92(11):1761–767.

Morland K, Dietz Roux AV, Wing S. Supermarkets, other food stores, and obesity. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2006; 30:333–39.

Pothukuchi K. Inner city grocery retail: what planners can do. Progressive Planning 2004;158: 10–12.

Pothukuchi K. Attracting supermarkets to inner-city neighborhoods: economic development outside the box. Econ Dev Q 2005;19(3):232–44.

Powell L. Food store availability and neighborhood characteristics in the United States. Preventive Medicine 2007;44:189–95.

Powell LM, Auld C, Chaloupka FJ, et. al. Associations between access to food stores and adolescent body mass index. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2007; 33(suppl 4):S301–S307.

Timperio A, Ball K, Roberts R, Campbell K, Andrianopoulos N, Crawford D. Children's fruit and vegetable intake: associations with the neighborhood food environment. Preventive Medicine 2008; 46(4):331–35.

Wrigley N, Warm D, Margetts B. Deprivation, diet, and food-retail access: findings from the Leeds ‘food deserts’ study. Environ Plan 2003;35(1):151–88.

 Top of Page

Top