How Low-Income Households Economize on Groceries
Ephraim
Leibtag; Phil
Kaufman
Food purchase decisions entail
tradeoffs among taste, preference, and quality factors—real
or perceived—to meet spending constraints.
This is especially true for the poor. Low-income
shoppers can stretch their food dollars in a number
of ways: shopping in discount foodstores, buying
and eating less food than higher income shoppers,
or buying low-priced (and possibly lower quality)
food products. Nutrition educators and those who
manage food assistance programs would benefit from
knowing just how this economizing behavior occurs,
and at what cost to low-income consumers.
ERS researchers investigated the
food purchases of low-income households in four
product categories: breakfast cereals, cheese, meat/poultry,
and fruits/vegetables. They analyzed average annual
quantities and expenditures using product descriptions,
brand names, and package sizes; they also took into
account whether items were on sale or purchased
with a coupon. Such detailed data allowed ERS to
calculate the average unit cost (per ounce or per
pound) for food items bought by shoppers of different
income levels.
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Comparisons across income groups
show that the poor economized on food by buying
more non-UPC coded random-weight foods (such as
block cheese or loose apples) on sale, a greater
proportion of private-label (store-brand) products,
and less expensive varieties of meats, fruits, and
vegetables. For example, low-income households bought
just 3.3 percent fewer pounds of fruits and vegetables
per person than high-income households, but spent
13 percent less for those products over the course
of the year.
These economizing practices allowed
the poor to spend 4.8 percent less for food products
from the four categories. However, the economizing
practices of low-income food shoppers may be hampered
by the types of stores they patronize. For example,
private-label products and volume-discounted packages
are less available in small grocery stores, which
are sometimes the only foodstores easily accessible
to the poor. In addition, food assistance programs,
such as food stamps and WIC, enhance low-income
households’ food purchasing power. Were it
not for these factors, differences in purchase patterns
between low- and higher income shoppers would likely
have been even larger.
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