In recent years, public health practitioners have aimed to improve the food environment and purchasing patterns in small food stores, yet studies summarizing these interventions and their effectiveness are lacking. This paper reviews small-store interventions and discusses their impact on healthy food access and consumption. Findings of the review indicate that small-store interventions significantly improve the availability of healthy foods, the purchase and consumption of those foods, and consumer knowledge. Multi-pronged strategies combining environmental and behavioral approaches in small-store interventions were most effective.
Published: February 2012
ID #: 1057
Journal: Prev Chronic Dis
Authors: Gittelsohn J, Rowan M, Gadhoke P
Keywords: Body mass index (BMI), Community setting, Corner store, Food outlet, Fruits and vegetables, Grocery store, In-store marketing, Media, Rural, Urban
Focus Areas: Food Retail, Pricing & Economics
Resource Type: Journal Article
Related Research
June 2025
Community Engaged Research Strategies Used in Food Retail Interventions: A Scoping Review
The purpose of this scoping review is to identify what community engagement (CE) research approaches have been applied by researchers in the retail food environment (RFE) intervention literature and how they vary by type of retail settings, phase of intervention, year of intervention, and key domains of equity. A total of 98 RFE interventions reported MoreJanuary 2025
Simulated retail food environments: A literature review of systems science approaches to advance equity in access to healthy diets
As researchers increasingly utilize systems science simulation modeling (SSSM), little is known about how and by whom SSSMs are being leveraged to address inequities in access to healthy diets. We evaluated the extent to which studies (n = 66) employing SSSM to examine retail food environments (RFEs): included three pillars of equity (social position, human capital, socioeconomic MoreNovember 2024