Life in a 'Food Desert'

Abstract

This paper forms part of the 'Food Deserts in British Cities' project. It reports on the findings of a series of focus groups conducted with residents in the Seacroft 'food desert' (in Leeds) in the period prior to a major improvement in their food retail accessibility. The paper explores individual food shopping behaviour, consumption patterns and attitudes towards a healthy diet and, in so doing, begins to develop an understanding of how different demographic groups adapt to living within a 'food desert'. The focus is on the perceived economic and physical constraints of residents in the area, but interwoven with this are other considerations such as motivation to consider health, family responsibilities and individual smoking status.

Cognitive age and grocery-store patronage by elderly shoppers

“…We thus disconfirm the findings of Tantiwong and Wilton (1985), Whelan et al (2002), Hare (2003), Moschis et al (2004) and Meneely et al (2008). For both attributes, the changing physical and cognitive abilities reflected by cognitive age do not seem to be significant enough to make the physical access to the store and the placement of products on the shelves result in different levels of store satisfaction.…”

“…This is particularly true for grocery shopping -a frequent and challenging (logistical) task in older consumers' lives (Teller, Kotzab, & Grant, 2012;Whelan, Wrigley, Warm, & Cannings, 2002). Nevertheless, older shoppers are an important and growing segment due to the 'greying of market places' (Zeithaml & Gilly, 1987) and are a challenged and disadvantaged consumer group due to changes related to biological, psychological and social aging.…”

“…For older consumers, the accessibility of a store represents a crucial determinant of store patronage, particularly in the case of grocery shopping (Hare, 2003;Whelan et al, 2002). Accessibility in this sense indicates the convenience of physical access in terms of how easy, quick, problem-free and safe it is to get to stores (e.g.…”

The economic and social role of small stores: a review of UK evidence

“…Another stream of work has focused on the impact of new retail developments on so-called 'food deserts' -neighbourhoods with no immediate access to substantive retail provision. In such localities, consumers are highly dependent on convenience stores as they often provide the only remaining access to grocery stores, with the consequence that consumers in these areas tend to pay higher prices and have a more restricted diet (Whelan et al 2002). At the other extreme, a handful of major studies have explored the effect of provision interventions from the opening of major multiple-owned superstores in food deserts in Leeds (Wrigley et al 2002a;Wrigley et al 2003;Wrigley et al 2002b) and Glasgow (Cummins et al 2008), attempting to assess the effects on diet.…”

La especialización del sector minorista de alimentación en Dortmund (Alemania)

“…Esta situación comercial ha repercutido muy negativamente en la ciudad, ya que muchos pequeños comercios han desaparecido, en algunos casos, sustituidos por medianas superficies comerciales, mientras que en otros casos, la pérdida del comercio tradicional ha supuesto la desaparición en ciertas zonas urbanas de servicios básicos como el aprovisionamiento comercial, con el decaimiento funcional que ello conlleva (Salvaneschi, 1996) creando lo que se ha denominado «food deserts» (Whelan et al, 2002).…”