Economics

Two-Stage Determinants of the Organic Food Retailing Landscape: The Case of Manhattan, New York

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Retail sales of organic food products have been increasing faster than any other category of food and have penetrated mainstream retail grocery outlets. The majority of the literature on organic markets explores the socioeconomic characteristics of consumers, linking these traits to the probability of buying organic food, and it suggests that access to organic food is an important but overlooked factor in such studies. More recently, research focusing on food retailer marketing strategies for organic food finds that traditional strategies such as price promotions are largely unsuccessful with increasing sales for the organic food consumer. This article focuses on the retailer decision to offer organic food for sale. We model the decision as a two-stage process, where the retailer’s first decision is whether to sell organic food, and the second decision determines how many different organic products to offer for sale. In doing so, by using data collected in stores, we assess the organic food retail landscape in Manhattan, NY. We find that the decision to offer organic food for sale depends on the neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics, and the amount of organic food offered for sale depends on the size of the store.

Publication Title

Journal of Food Products Marketing

Publication Date

2-17-2017

Volume

23

Issue

2

First Page

221

Last Page

238

ISSN

1045-4446

DOI

10.1080/10454446.2015.1048023

Keywords

food retail availability, Manhattan, organic food, organic food landscape, spatial distribution of food

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