Differences in a Chain Supermarket’s Sales to SNAP Shoppers Before and Since the COVID-19 Pandemic

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Nutr Educ Behav
• Personal Author:
  Lo, Amy Elizabeth ; Duffy, Emily Welker ; Ng, Shu Wen
• Description:
  Objective:
  
  This study 1) compares grocery sales to SNAP shoppers in rural and urban grocery stores and 2) estimate changes in sales to SNAP shoppers in North Carolina (NC) since the pandemic.
  
  Data:
  
  Weekly transaction data among loyalty shoppers at a large grocery chain across NC from Oct 2019-Dec 2020 (n=32,182 store weeks) to assess share of total calories sold from: fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes (FVNL) with and without additives, sugar sweetened beverages (SSB), junk food (JF) and processed meats (PM).
  
  Analysis:
  
  Multivariate random effects models with robust standard errors to examine the association of rural/urban status and pre/since COVID-19 with share of calories sold to SNAP shoppers from each food category. We controlled for county-level factors (e.g., socio-demographic composition, food environment) and store-level factors.
  
  Results:
  
  We did not find significant rural-urban differences in the composition of sales to SNAP shoppers in adjusted models. There was a significant decrease in mean share of total calories from SSBs (−0.43%) and JF (−1.32%), and an increase in the share from PM (0.09%) compared to before the pandemic (all p<0.05).
  
  Conclusions:
  
  Urban-rural definitions are insufficient to understand nuances in food environments and more support is needed to ensure healthy food access.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Commerce COVID-19 Food Assistance Food Supply Fruit Humans Pandemics Supermarkets Vegetables
• Source:
  J Nutr Educ Behav. 55(5):343-353
• Pubmed ID:
  37164550
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC10228633
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  UL1 TR001111/TR/NCATS NIH HHSUnited States/ ; UM1 TR004406/TR/NCATS NIH HHSUnited States/ ; T32 HD007168/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; UR6 DP000498/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHSUnited States/ ; P2C HD050924/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U48 DP004998/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  55
• Issue:
  5
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:9e452994283a4afb4890985afe2e94dfc5acc656a43074ca6f1feb5bef6b9bdd
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/129381/cdc_129381_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 401.16 KB ]