A systematic review of factors that influence food store owner and manager decision making and ability or willingness to use choice architecture and marketing mix strategies to encourage healthy consumer purchases in the United States, 2005–2017

Abstract

BackgroundAltering food store environments is a promising approach to encourage healthy product purchases by consumers to improve their diet quality and health. Food store owners and managers are intermediaries to ensure that environmental changes are enacted. Despite their role as gatekeepers to implement and sustain healthy food environment changes, no systematic review has been published that examines food store owner and manager (retailer) data. Thus a review of retailer information available within the expansive United States (US) food environment literature was the purpose of this research.MethodsThe PRISMA protocol was used. A search strategy, including published articles from years 1980–2017, was applied to six databases to locate relevant articles that addressed the perspective of food store retailers in the US. Data were extracted, organized, and agreed upon between two authors based on pre-designed constructs: (1) a social-ecological model to capture factors that influence retailer decision making; and (2) a marketing-mix and choice-architecture framework to examine perspectives of applied (or the prospective application of) strategies at the store-level. Study quality was assessed using quality criteria checklists for qualitative and quantitative research.ResultsThirty-one articles met inclusion criteria and most studies (n = 22) were qualitative and conducted in urban food stores (n = 23). Multiple social-ecological factors influenced retailer decision making and ability or willingness to use marketing-mix and choice-architecture strategies to improve consumers’ healthy choices to support dietary quality. These factors included: conflicting training outcomes to enhance retailers’ knowledge and skills (individual, n = 9); the importance of trust (interpersonal, n = 8); views about marketing-mix and choice-architecture strategies in the food environment (n = 25); consumer demand or demographics (community, n = 19); supplier and food store management variables (systems or sectors, n = 18); local and federal policy (n = 8); and support for community health (norms/values, n = 8).ConclusionsResearch partnerships can support favorable business and public health outcomes to align with retailers’ business models and available resources. A participatory and translational approach to food environment research will likely maximize public health impact. Urban and rural food store retailers are important actors for future research to inform the feasibility of store retailers to apply MMCA strategies that are profitable and promote health.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12966-019-0767-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Evaluation of Store Environment Changes of an In-Store Intervention to Promote Fruits and Vegetables in Latino/Hispanic-Focused Food Stores

“…In a systematic review of store owner/manager's perspectives on in-store interventions, it was found that store owners/managers are receptive to intervention strategies that are easy to implement and fit into their current work schedule and space [57]. Increasing the presence of marketing materials is a less intrusive in-store environmental strategy for store owners/managers, which may be a reason why El Valor was able to improve this marketing mix element.…”

“…For example, some tienda managers/owners chose to replace existing displays and equipment for new displays and equipment, therefore not changing the amount of shelf space dedicated to FVs and/or number of FV displays present but rather improving the quality of displays. This was partially due to space constraints to stock and/or install new products and displays, a barrier identified in other small store interventions [12,26,57,59,60]. Previous in-store interventions overcame one of these barriers by working closely with store owners/managers to commit to stocking just 1-3 additional FV varieties [26].…”

“…Another barrier to increasing product availability and placement for healthy foods, such as FVs, is time and effort [57]. Store owners/managers are more likely to stock unhealthy foods because often the distributors of these foods provide direct assistance with the delivery and stocking of these foods [57]. In future intervention trials, potential strategies to successfully improve the availability and placement of FVs may include using adaptive intervention approaches.…”

A Model Depicting the Retail Food Environment and Customer Interactions: Components, Outcomes, and Future Directions

“…A distributor’s focus may be to develop a supply chain that efficiently moves food from warehouses to stores and restaurants. Alternatively, a store manager or restaurant owner’s focus may be to provide an array of items that customers demand in an efficient and pleasant environment [ 36 , 37 ]. The varying foci and goals of these actors have often resulted in an efficient system that provides an abundance of convenient, non-perishable, manufactured food and beverage items, as these are often more logistically and financially appealing to manage [ 38 , 39 , 40 ].…”

“…Relative to other RFE components in the model, very little literature in public health nutrition has investigated the impact of these actors on the RFE, though there is a growing base of research examining the role of store managers [ 36 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. Such research is important as these actors develop reciprocal and deterministic processes that influence the current RFE (e.g., informal and formal product contract agreements [ 44 , 45 ], managers requesting products from distributors based on customer demand and what they can maintain due to resources and infrastructure) [ 46 , 47 ].…”