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Abstract
While food access is an increasingly studied component of research related to diet
and health, consumer behavior and store choice have been relatively overlooked in
understanding the dietary health-food access relationship. Especially in areas with high
poverty rates, where the proportion of low-access and low-income population persists
over time, consumers are faced with shopping at non-traditional stores, which may
augment the negative welfare impacts of residing in these areas. Using IRI's Consumer
Network Panel, IRI's InfoScan, and Nielsen's TDLinx store characteristics data, this
paper develops a structural model of store choice that frames Pinkse, Slade, and Brett's
(2002) distance metric (DM) method inside a demand system to model what behaviors
drive consumers' store choice decisions, highlighting underserved communities. While
the DM method has been used previously to model brand choice, this paper is the
first to use it to investigate store choice. Because the store-choice model is based on
demand for store attributes (such as relative prices, product assortment measures, store
services, and distance between stores), it reveals consumer preferences for store types
and provides insight into policy prescriptions that attempt to improve food access.