Food Access Matters: Quantifying the Price Differential Across Four Major Food Retailers and a Mobile Market Aiming to Improve Affordable Nutritious Food Access

To understand how food prices differed between physical and online grocery stores and a well-established mobile market in a Midwest metropolitan area of the US.

Four major grocery retailers nearest to 8 subsidized apartments were identified. Two stores from each retailer were randomly selected (n = 8), and prices for 67 size-standardized foods were collected in person and online. An analysis of variance test assessed mean differences in cart prices across stores relative to the Twin Cities Mobile Market (TCMM).

Relative to TCMM cart prices, cart prices were significantly higher at physical and online Walmart (21% to 22% higher, P < 0.001), Target (29% to 30%, P < 0.001), and Cub Foods (62% to 63%, P < 0.001) stores and online Aldi stores (14%, P = 0.02). Aldi physical store prices were not statistically significantly different (P = 0.72).

Results require cautious interpretation given the low number of observations per retailer; however, findings suggest TCMM provides foods at a lower cost than most nearby grocery stores, providing 1 example of full-service mobile market pricing. Future research is needed to assess mobile market pricing structures in other locations across the US.