And the Food Rainforests

6 Comments on "And the Food Rainforests"

1. JMB
   April 10, 2012 11:33 am

   I wonder where Fresh Direct fits in here…

2. kmustermann
   April 10, 2012 2:20 pm

   [same comment I posted on Curbed]:

   This is fun, but I don’t know how to interpret it. Do wealthier people go to Whole Foods or D’Ag because they have “wealthy people stuff”, or do they go there because it’s the only option in their neighborhood? Do poorer people avoid these places because they are more expensive, or is it because there’s little point in shopping in Columbus Circle when you live in Rego Park? I haven’t seen a Pathmark, a Fine Fare or a C-Town in Tribeca, for instance. By the same token, there’s no Gourmet Garage in East Harlem or in Bed-Stuy.

   How does the study factor in convenience and travel distance to/from the supermarket? (“Convenience” defined as “Which supermarket do I go to that I know will have everything I need?”; travel distance is self-explanatory).

   It would have been useful to also have a price-point comparison, using a basket of the exact same basic items measured across supermarkets; the bigger the number of items, the better… and it would also serve as indicator of which markets carry a wider universe of items.

3. rk
   April 10, 2012 3:24 pm

   If I am correct, this isn’t necessarily showing data about who shops at a given supermarket, just the median income of the people who live in the same census tract. So you can’t necessarily infer anything about who shops there, although of course it is likely that people shop at supermarkets close to home.

4. art
   April 10, 2012 5:18 pm

   This shows where the chains choose to locate their stores, not who shops there, though it is essentially the same thing. The direction of the conclusion is different.

5. Jake
   April 12, 2012 9:32 am

   D’Ag is the worst, high prices, terrible produce/bread/meat. It must have been grandfathered in to the locations they’re operating in, because it is one of the least value/highest price groceries I’ve ever frequented.

6. Greg
   June 14, 2012 8:38 pm

   The oddest thing to me is that Fairway’s median income dips so low. What’s the reason for this?