title: A framework for understanding grocery purchasing in a low-income urban environment.
abstract: Research demonstrates that food desert environments limit low-income shoppers' ability to purchase healthy foods, thereby increasing their likelihood of diet-related illnesses. We sought to understand how individuals in an urban American food desert make grocery-purchasing decisions, and specifically why unhealthy purchases arise. Analysis is based on ethnographic data from participant observation, 37 in-depth interviews, and three focus groups with low-income, primarily African American shoppers with children. We found participants had detailed knowledge of and preference for healthy foods, but the obligation to consistently provide food for their families required them to apply specific decision criteria which, combined with structural qualities of the supermarket environment, increased unhealthy purchases and decreased healthy purchases. Applying situated cognition theory, we constructed an emic model explaining this widely shared grocery-purchasing decision process and its implications. This context-specific understanding of behavior suggests that multifaceted, system-level approaches to intervention are needed to increase healthy purchasing in food deserts.
authors: Heller School for Social Policy and Managem, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA. dzachary@brandeis.edu
authors: Drew A
authors: DA
authors: Zachary
authors: Anne M
authors: AM
authors: Palmer
authors: Sam Wilson
authors: SW
authors: Beckham
authors: Pamela J
authors: PJ
authors: Surkan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology; D000368:Aged; D015142:Baltimore / Q000453:epidemiology; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology; D005523:Food Supply; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011203:Poverty / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult