Shopping Behavior, Expenditure Patterns, and Inner-City Food Prices.

Concern about charges of price discrimination against low-income consumers has resulted in numerous studies comparing prices charged by supermarkets in high and low-income areas [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. This work indicates that although some price differences can be observed, charges of systematic price discrimination by chain stores cannot be sustained. Evidence of prices charged in smaller stores suggests similar conclusions. Despite the consistency of the findings which have been reported, unresolved issues remain because surveys of shelf prices for a particular market basket in a store sample are not necessarily relevant to the question of prices paid by a specific group of consumers who shop in a particular set of food stores. In a pilot study conducted within a neighborhood in North Philadelphia, wide variations in prices paid by different groups of inner-city consumers occurred because of differences in store selection and purchasing patterns. The differences in prices paid which may be attributed to behavioral variables far exceed the extent of variation in shelf prices between stores located in different income areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]