Variations in the Availability and Price of Healthier Food Options by Store Type and Urban-Rural Setting

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

We used a comprehensive ground-truthed data set collected in 2006 from all traditional, convenience, and nontraditional retail food stores in the 6 rural and one urban counties of the Brazos Valley in Central Texas (n = 335) to identify location and store type, categories, and prices of healthier food options for food stores. There were small significant differences in availability and average price between rural and urban counties across all store types. Superstores provided substantially more availability and cheaper healthful foods, especially fresh items. Convenience stores and dollar stores improved the availability of healthier foods in both rural and urban settings. However, the prices offered by convenience stores were considerably higher in general.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition
Volume7
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)381-400
Number of pages20
ISSN1932-0248
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • convenience stores, dollar stores, food environment, food price, healthy food items, rural and urban comparison, superstores

ID: 255454776