SUPERMARKET CHARACTERISTICS AND OPERATING COSTS IN LOW-INCOME AREAS

Robert King, Ephraim Leibtag and Ajay Behl

No 34003, Agricultural Economic Reports from United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

Abstract: Whether the poor pay more for food than other income groups is an important question in food price policy research. Stores serving low-income shoppers differ in important ways from stores that receive less of their revenues from Food Stamp redemptions. Stores with more revenues from Food Stamps are generally smaller and older, and offer relatively fewer convenience services for shoppers. They also offer a different mix of products, with a relatively high portion of sales coming from meat and private-label products. Metro stores with high Food Stamp redemption rates lag behind other stores in the adoption of progressive supply chain and human resource practices. Finally, stores with the highest Food Stamp redemption rates have lower sales margins relative to other stores, but have significantly lower payroll costs as a percentage of sales. Overall, operating costs for stores with high Food Stamp redemption rates are not significantly different from those for stores with moderate Food Stamp redemption rates. If the poor do pay more, factors other than operating costs are likely to be the reason.

Keywords: Marketing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17
Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Working Paper: SUPERMARKET CHARACTERISTICS AND OPERATING COSTS IN LOW-INCOME AREAS (2004)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:uerser:34003

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.34003

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