New York University researchers and students visited 1,256 grocery stores in Manhattan to analyze the dynamics of organic food marketing. Three out of every five stores didn’t sell organic products at all and a mere 66 stores – 5 percent – had more than 12 of the 24 types of food on the NYU checklist, which included apples, carrots, potatoes, eggs, chicken and milk. Not surprisingly, stores selling organic food tended to be located in neighborhoods with higher median incomes and educational levels.
“It lends support to the notion that consumers with greater access to organic food are more likely to buy organic food,” said the author of the study, Carolyn Dimitri, an associate professor of food studies.
But the size of the store also matters, says the study, whose title refers to “two-stage determinants” in organic retailing. Demographics seem to influence whether a store carries organic food while size of the store – NYU counted the number of cash registers – was linked to the number of organic items that were on sale.