Health & Fitness - No car? Expect to pay more for groceries

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No car? Expect to pay more for groceries

NEW YORK (UPI) -- People who live in poor neighborhoods pay more for the same food items than those living in wealthy communities, U.S. researchers said.

Debabrata Talukdar of Columbia University in New York City said that the critical factor in how much a household spends on groceries is whether it has access to a car.

Those without access to cars -- 40 percent of poor households -- pay higher prices for groceries than households with access to a car, whether wealthy or poor, Talukdar said.

Lacking mobility means consumers buy from the nearest neighborhood store rather than larger regional or national grocery chains, which have lower prices and better quality food items.

Talukdar, who conducted a field study in Buffalo, N.Y., divided up zip-code areas into richest, medium, and poorest neighborhoods and tracked prices of 15 items across 115 stores for three months.

The study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, found that, relative to the lowest available price in all neighborhoods, shoppers at the richest, medium and poorest neighborhoods pay on average 11 percent, 14 percent, and 22 percent more, respectively.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 08/25/2008

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Posted Comments:

09-06-2008 23:37

Roy wrote:

No car? Expect to pay more for groceries

Its not whether you have a car or not, but whether you are willing to take a bus or walk to a large chain store instead of a locally owned small store. I have a car, but buy from local to support them. Costs me more, but I want to keep them in business. Only go to Kroger or Walmart if its not available at small store.

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09-01-2008 18:52

wrote:

NO Car/pay more for groceries

Probably true, but I use our housing van to go to WalMart, King Soopers etc. to shop for foods. It costs me 1.00 to ride, and the stores are big, huge if I got to the new super walmart north. They are both super size, but the new one is even larger.

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09-01-2008 06:11

Michael wrote:

"No car? Expect to pay more for groceries":

Many sales are unavailable to we walkers. The 10 for $10 2 liter Coke is out of reach unless you take a cart for the mile walk.

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