Barriers to and Facilitators of Stocking Healthy Food Options: Viewpoints of Baltimore City Small Storeowners

Abstract

Receptivity to strategies to improve the food environment by increasing access to healthier foods in small food stores is underexplored. We conducted 20 in-depth interviews with small storeowners of different ethnic backgrounds, as part of a small store intervention trial. Storeowners perceived barriers and facilitators to purchase, stock and promote healthy foods. Barriers mentioned included customer preferences for higher fat and sweeter taste and for lower prices price, lower wholesaler availability of healthy food, and customers’ lack of interest in health. Most storeowners thought positively of taste tests, free samples and communication interventions. However, they varied in terms of their expectations of the impact these strategies on customers’ healthy food purchases. The findings reported add to the limited data on motivating and working with small store owners in low income urban settings.

You Can’t Find Healthy Food in the Bush: Poor Accessibility, Availability and Adequacy of Food in Rural Australia

“…We contend that non-Indigenous rural and remote areas, locally and internationally, experience similar issues and all may benefit from food stores working together to negotiate lower freight costs [ 9 ], thereby, increasing supply and lowering prices. In the shorter term, interventions supported by food store owners show potential to improve healthier choices, these include: taste tests, free samples of healthier choices and communication interventions [ 47 ], also nutrition-style shelf labelling has been shown to be effective at nudging healthier choices [ 48 ].…”

Store-directed price promotions and communications strategies improve healthier food supply and demand: impact results from a randomized controlled, Baltimore City store-intervention trial

“…We suggest several reasons why pricing intervention storeowners failed to consistently provide pass-through for the other foods. First, storeowners expressed concern over providing temporary price reductions because they believed they would result in customer complaints and distrust when prices were returned to normal levels ( 37 ) . Storeowners expressed that their customers were extremely price-sensitive, down to the smallest monetary unit ( 37 ) .…”

A mixed methods assessment of the barriers and readiness for meeting the SNAP depth of stock requirements in Baltimore’s small food stores

“…These concerns have been found to some degree in previous interviews with corner store owners [Kim et al 2017; Gittelsohn et al 2008; O’Malley et al 2013]. All of these barriers would potentially create a financial burden for the store owners because they would be stuck stocking products that will not be sold.…”

“…Leung et al found that SNAP participants were supportive of increasing nutrition education and incentivizing healthful foods, which would be helpful for increasing customer demand in small stores (Leung et al 2017). Other suggestions include activities to enhance communication between customers and store owners, to communicate presence of a demand for healthier options to store owners and ensure a sustainable relationship of supply and demand (Gittelsohn et al 2008; Kim et al 2017; Song et al 2012). However, there are many issues such as pricing that need to be overcome in order to keep this sustainable (Caspi, Pelletier, and Harnack et al 2017; Zachary et al 2013).…”