Food desert ordinance
By: J. David Chapman/December 12, 2019
I have noticed we have invented terms and phrases to describe situations in the built environment and society in general. The latest is the phrase “food desert.” Simply put, a food desert is an area that has limited access to affordable and nutritious food.
Out of Oklahoma’s 77 counties, 54 contain food deserts. Out of 77 counties, 76 contain areas of low access to large grocery stores. From these 76 low-access counties, 45 have 50% or more of their population living in areas with low access to large grocery stores. This is primarily due to higher poverty levels and sparse population in certain areas.
Those of us who study and work in retail understand the reason for these food deserts. Grocery stores operate on a low-profit, high-volume business model. They have loss leaders that are offered at even lower margins, or even at a loss, to simply provide a service to customers and get them into the store to purchase the higher-margin items. Fresh fruits and vegetables fall into the low-margin, difficult-to-market category for stores. Merchandisers such as Dollar General, Family Dollar, and other small-box stores have come into markets and cherry-picked the profitable items to sell and not offered the less profitable and difficult items to bring to market. Sounds like a reasonable, sensible business model to make money, right?
Yes, it is a good business model and they do especially well in rural and urban markets where grocery stores are already struggling to survive. The problem is that local citizens buy the more profitable items at the discount stores and not at the local grocery store, and expect the grocery store to continue to be there to sell them the low-profit items that the discount store is not willing to carry. Predictably, grocery stores are closing in these areas and creating this food desert.
Some on the Oklahoma City Council believe it is the government’s obligation to solve this problem with a zoning “overlay” requiring retailers to dedicate at least 500 square feet to fresh fruit, vegetables, and meats. I am anxious to see if you believe it is your government’s place to tell retailers how much space they must dedicate to certain items they sell. Is this an example of government overreach or is this a legitimate function of local government?
J. David Chapman is an associate professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).