Defying the Food Desert, Food Swamp, and Supermarket Redlining Stereotypes in Detroit: Comparing the Distribution of Food Outlets in 2013 and 2023

Dorceta E. Taylor (), Ashley Bell, Destiny Treloar, Ashia Ajani, Marco Alvarez, Tevin Hamilton, Jayson Velazquez, Pwintphyu Nandar, Lily Fillwalk and Kerry J. Ard
Additional contact information
Dorceta E. Taylor: School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
Ashley Bell: School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
Destiny Treloar: School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
Ashia Ajani: African American Studies Department, University of California—Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Marco Alvarez: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Albany, CA 12205, USA
Tevin Hamilton: Physicians for Social Responsibility, Los Angeles, CA 90014, USA
Jayson Velazquez: Acadia Center, Hartford, CT 06106, USA
Pwintphyu Nandar: School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
Lily Fillwalk: School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
Kerry J. Ard: Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 16, 1-59

Abstract: Despite the numerous food studies conducted in Detroit, none have assessed changes in the food landscape over a decade. No previous study has systematically analyzed food store closures in the city either. We will address these oversights by examining the distribution of food outlets in the city ten years apart. This paper probes the following questions: (1) How has the distribution of Detroit’s food outlets changed in the decade between 2013 and 2023? (2) Does Detroit fit the definition of a food desert in 2013 or 2023? (3) Does Detroit fit the definition of a food swamp in 2013 or 2023? (4) Has supermarket redlining occurred in Detroit in 2013 or 2023? (5) How is population decline related to food outlet distribution? (6) How do food store closures impact food store distribution? We conducted exhaustive searches to collect information on thousands of food outlets from Data Axle, Google, and Bing. The data were analyzed and mapped in SPSS 28 and ArcGIS 10.8. We compared 3499 food outlets identified in 2013 with 2884 identified in 2023. We expanded our search for food outlets in 2023 and found an additional 611 food outlets in categories not studied in 2013. The study’s findings are significant as they unearth evidence of extensive population decline—driven by Black flight—and a vanishing food infrastructure. Detroit lost more than 600 food outlets between 2013 and 2023, a staggering number that underscores the severity of the issue. Moreover, in 2023, we documented food store closures and found 1305 non-operational or closed food outlets in the city. Regardless of the neighborhood’s racial composition, the household median income, or the educational attainment of residents, food store closures were widespread in 2023; 27.3% of the food outlets identified that year were defunct. Despite the massive food store closures, Detroit did not fit the description of a food desert; each of the city’s 54 neighborhoods had between 7 and 300 food outlets. The food swamp thesis did not accurately describe the city either, as supermarkets/large grocery stores were intermingled with convenience and corner stores in both study periods. The data did not find evidence of supermarket redlining, as supermarkets/large grocery stores were found in formerly redlined neighborhoods alongside dollar stores and variety stores in both study periods.

Keywords: supermarkets; grocery stores; food insecurity; food access; closure; population decline; vanishing food infrastructure; intermingled; outmigration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/7109/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/7109/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:16:p:7109-:d:1459325

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().