Supermarkets and convenience stores have been costly to people's health

A study shows that in countries with the most such stores per capita, people buy more unhealthy food and are more likely to be obese.

- Tailane Scapin and Adrian Cameron

In many countries, buying food at supermarkets, convenience stores and online has become the norm. But what's the convenience of modern food shopping doing to our health?

Our study, published on March 3 with colleagues from Unicef, looked at how people in 97 countries shopped for groceries over 15 years.

Globally, we found a huge increase in the number of supermarkets and convenience stores (which we'll shorten to chain grocery stores in this article). We also found people are spending more money in these stores and on their online platforms.

But this has come at a cost to our health. People in countries with the most chain grocery stores per person buy more unhealthy food and are more likely to be obese.

Here's why we're so concerned about this public health disaster.

RISE OF CHAIN GROCERY STORES

Our study analysed food industry data from a business database to understand how the food retail sector has changed worldwide over time. We looked at the kinds of stores, how much people spend there, and how much unhealthy processed food is sold. We linked these trends with changes in obesity rates using data from a large global initiative.

We found the density of chain grocery stores (number of stores per 10,000 people) has increased globally by 23.6 per cent over 15 years (from 2009 to 2023).

We found far more of these stores per person in high-income countries, as you may expect. However, it's in low- and middle-income countries where numbers are increasing the fastest.

Rapid urbanisation, rising incomes and customer demand mean large retail companies see these countries as new potential markets.

For example, the density of chain grocery stores increased by about 21 per cent a year in Myanmar, about 18 per cent a year in Vietnam and about 12 per cent a year in Cambodia.

ONLINE SHOPPING