Corner Store Retailers' Perspectives on a Discontinued Healthy Corner Store Initiative

Area of Science:

• Public Health Nutrition
• Food Retail Interventions
• Community Food Access

Background:

• Healthy retail initiatives focus on increasing fresh fruit and vegetable (FFV) availability in corner/convenience stores (CS) to improve diet quality and food access.
• These interventions are increasingly adopted by public health practitioners to address diet-related risks and modify food retail environments.
• Retailer perspectives are crucial for the success of public health retailing interventions, especially in settings with mixed or null evaluation results.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the experiences and critical factors influencing the feasibility and sustainability of a healthy CS program focused on FFV sales.
• To understand why a specific healthy CS program was not sustained after pilot testing.
• To identify challenges faced by CS retailers in selling FFV.

Main Methods:

• Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 CS retailers in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (7 urban, 1 rural).
• Thematic analysis was employed to analyze interview data.
• The study focused on the sale of FFV within the context of a healthy CS program.

Main Results:

• Retailers encountered two primary challenges in selling FFV, both connected to their integration within the larger food system.
• These challenges highlight the complex relationship between individual retail environments and broader food system structures.
• The findings suggest that the sustainability of FFV sales in CS is influenced by factors beyond the store level.

Conclusions:

• Efforts to increase FFV availability in CS must consider the structural aspects of the food system.
• Addressing upstream determinants, such as food system structure and relations, is essential for retailer motivation and program success.
• Interventions need to acknowledge and potentially address the broader food system context to enhance the sustainability of healthy retail initiatives.