Food store access, availability, and choice when purchasing fruits and vegetables

A study was undertaken to understand food store access, availability, and choice when purchasing fruits and vegetables. A nonlinear multinomial logit (MNL) model was used to estimate the association between retail food environment, along with marketing, store level, and sociodemographic factors. When purchasing fruits and vegetables, grocery and supercenter stores are the most frequented stores, accounting for approximately 72% of all purchases. Grocery and convenience stores are next in line, with higher price offerings. The results of household-level variables show that income is positively associated with patronizing higher-priced grocery, drug, and club stores. The presence of children in a household has a large, positive effect on lower-priced and high-volume store types. The large negative effect of convenience stores on the likelihood of patronizing a supercenter indicates that when it comes to shopping for produce, households tend to value convenience more than larger assortment and affordability found at supercenters.