I split my food shopping between a suburban enclave in Franklin, TN and my parent’s country house in Columbia, TN. There are a multitude of lifestyle discrepancies between suburban and country living, and I suspected that this would be evident in the retail food options offered. Columbia grocery stores are either large big box grocers or small regional stores. These stores historically service more conventional food options. Franklin’s larger and more affluent population allows for more diversity in alternative and health food stores. I chose to observe a local Kroger Grocery Store in Columbia, and contrasted that shopping experience with Sprouts Farmer’s Market in Franklin. The separate shopping experiences elucidated that retail food options are contingent on the expectations, comprehension and financial flexibility of the customers and the stores. I visited the Kroger Grocery Store around eight on Sunday morning. The patron demographic was primarily older than 55 and African- American. The store has provided groceries for the community for at least fifteen years. The store was clean and organized, but there was a slight dingy appearance that comes with older stores. The store has been remodeled and remerchandised, but the dark lighting and worn floors disclose the stores true age. When you walk into the store you are greeted by a large produce and floral section. The store follows popular produce planograms with overflowing fruits and vegetable stacked into
As I walked into Wawa, I could confidently tell you where everything is because the layouts of every Wawa in New Jersey are almost identical. There is a wall of refrigerators filled with soda to the right as you walk in, a side of the store towards the back reserved for making sandwiches, endless shelves of junk food by the registers at the front entrance and the refrigerators filled with soda, and an open freezer area in the middle of the store with some “healthier” foods. The amount of people inside took me completely by surprise as I opened the door because there was a lack of cars parked in the parking lot. I personally felt like I was in a grocery store rather than a Wawa. What I first noticed was the demographic of the customers in the Wawa. Almost all of the people in the store were either hispanic or african american. With people suffering from poverty and a lack of cars in the parking lot, I realized that many of these people walked to the store probably because they didn’t have cars. As I browsed through each aisle I found that Wawa had a nice selection of milk, fresh bread, and cereals that anyone can afford. As I attempted to search the store for any food filled with quality nutrients that wasn’t a dairy or wheat, the number of options weren’t to thrilling. Wawa’s fresh fruit consisted of about 5 red apples, 3 bananas,
John Mackey and Renee Lawson Hardy, the co-founders of the current Whole Foods Market, simply wanted to provide quality healthy food to the American consumer. This was about three decades ago when the first store opened. According to Mackey, making money was not the first priory, but helping people to eat better was. Happily for Mackey and Lawson, the residents of Austin Texas were hungry, no pun intended, for just this type of product. At the time, though there were several small independent healthy food stores, there was not a full sized grocery store. This is what set Mackey and Lawson apart from their competitors, their enormous sized health food grocery store was a huge success and now Whole Foods Market (WFM) is not only a
Eric Schlosser starts with the scenery of Colorado Springs, how in just three decades it went from vast, open nature, to having fast food restaurants placed anywhere and everywhere readily accessible. A majority of land withholding pure nature and free roaming animals was a view to others, the opportunity to place mass fast food corporations. These mass fast food corporations have not only broadened the American’s average diet, it has also affected the landscape, culture, and the overall economy of America. The culture of the average citizen’s meal included going to the grocery store to buy food staples such as vegetables or meat, that were to be prepared later for homemade meals. Nowadays, the popular culture of American citizens is to hit
While examining the community of Valdosta, Georgia there were some common themes throughout the city. In this community there are multiple grocery stores spaced throughout the city, such as Publix, Winn-Dixie, and Walmart. Even though there are quite a few grocery stores for people to buy food to cook, on weekdays
Explanation: Lynn Kelly speaks to a consumer Joyce, who talks about shopping at a grocery store and not being able to afford the healthy foods. "Joyce pointed, 'Fruit is high. Everything is high vegetable is high. So, it's really expensive when you wan to eat good '." Here, the consumer knows what the healthy foods are such as fruits and vegetables however, since she can not afford it so she does not purchase it. Many American households live on a tight budget, in which the expense of consuming a meal is kept at a minimum thus,this leads to eating at a cheap fast food restaurant. Mcdonald's "Dollar Menu" is attractive to low income communities where they a can achieve a whole meal with a few dollars.
Drive around any reasonably sized town in America, and there will likely be a fast food restaurant. However, it is also probable that there be restaurants lining the streets too. In the short essay “Don’t Blame the Eater” by David Zinczenko, the author argues that it is difficult to find economical and convenient alternatives to fast-food restaurants. Conversely, grocery stores and sit down restaurants are widespread, providing customers with healthy choices. Grocery stores provide a wide array of healthy foods and ingredients to prepare a meal with. Fortunately, many restaurants will have nutritious options for health conscious individuals. While some may find it challenging to ignore the conveniences of fast-food restaurants, it takes very
In 1883, Barney Kroger never could imagine that his $372 investment into his grocery store would turn into such a successful venture (Farfan, 2017). One hundred thirty-seven years later, Kroger stands as a prime example of the American dream as it caters to millions of people across the continental United States. Kroger is poised to enter the next few decades with some uncertainty, but they are no strangers to adversity. They have endured an aggressive “#GROCERIESNOTGUNS” campaign to punish them for allowing open-carry within their stores by deferring to local legislation (Epstein, 2014). In 2008, they reacted to a report by GreenPeace criticizing them for not practicing sustainable practices related to seafood by removing some of their more
David Zinczenko made the lack of choices the centerpiece of his essay “Don’t Blame the Eater.” Zinczenko posits that fast food restaurants, then as now, “were the only available options for an American kid to get an affordable meal”. Really? Maybe if we lived in a world full of only gas stations and fast food vendors. However we have Wal-Mart, Kroger, Harris Teeter, and a myriad of other supermarkets, all of which are literally full of healthy cheap food. Zinczenko uses a snarky analogy comparing the difficulty of acquiring a grapefruit versus finding a Big Mac on “any thoroughfare in America”. Zinczenko says that teenagers in particular, are having difficulty finding alternatives to fast food. Not to sound like beating drum, but where are the parents of these teenagers, why are they not supplying these kids with cheap healthy food? Why are they out purchasing expensive un-healthy food instead of eating healthy meals at home? Where are the parents, and where is their
Publix serves over one million, mostly time-impoverished customers that are becoming more knowledgeable and demanding every day. These customers, who typically live in the nearby area for a generation, spend $5,000 on groceries per year, and many say they don't mind paying a little more to shop in Publix's customer oriented, clean stores staffed with well-trained and friendly employees. In addition, they are cost-conscious bargain shoppers who are turning towards store brands more and more. Finally, their customers are becoming increasingly more health conscious. About 70% of women and 54% of men consider nutrition an important factor in their food purchases (Mujtaba & Johnson).
When I moved from the small Illinois town of Madison to University City, a neighborhood in the city of St. Louis, I noted many differences between the two areas. As I expected, St. Louis offers quicker access to cultural areas and unique (albeit more expensive) restaurants and bars. However, I also noticed some surprising differences between the two locations, one of which being a lack of familiar grocery stores and fast food chains. Although in southern Illinois I was used to grocery stores such as Aldi, Schnucks, and Shop’N’Save, as well as having easy access to drive-thru fast food restaurants, I found that University City lacked many such drive-thru restaurants and mostly had grocery stores such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s as well
“For people to be healthy, personal behavior, safe conditions, and an environment that supports healthy choices must combine in complementary ways” (Brownell, Kersh, & Ludwig, 2010, p. 382). Humans respond to food accessibility and choices in their area. Sadly, in Wyandotte County there are numerous fast food restaurants, but limited healthy grocers. This is why we believe Wyandotte County needs to be more accommodating to their residents. If the county had more accessible healthy food choices it would make a tremendous impact on its inhabitants. Of course we know that personal responsibility is a big factor in making these nutritious choices, but how are residents supposed to make the right choice when they are not given the capacity too?
In Fast Food Nation, Schlosser tackles the idea that the successful and expanding fast food industry has destroyed independent business as well as damaged local economies with its low-cost, high-profit, and convenience business model. From food to clothing, chains and branded products have become the norm: “America's Main streets and malls now boast the same Pizza Huts and Taco Bells, Gaps and Banana Republics, Starbucks and Jiffy Lube's, Footlockers, Snip N Clips, Sunglass Huts, and HobbyTown USA's," (Schlosser 13). These stores and companies are all thriving because the American people continue to support them. However, by over-supporting name-brands, chains, and franchises we lower the amount of revenue and number of customers that local or independent businesses get. This, in turn, allows for name-brands and large corporations to control what happens in the fast-food business.
This paper will reflect on my experience by exploring an ethnic grocery store. Exploring the different aspect of cultural food that is new. This new knowledge of different cultural food in this ethnic grocery store gave a variety of food that you would not majority see in American grocery stores. But have some food that you would see in American grocery stores. This paper provides my acknowledgment of surrounding, what cultural group or common nationality mostly shop there, are they store food labels based on their cultural language from their country.
My grandfather was a grocer for 20 years. He first worked at a local grocery store, bagging bags, then he opened his own called Village Grocer, next to a golf course. But the most successful one by far was Prospect Grocery, or “Moons”. With lines around the store during breakfast, lunch, mid afternoon, and night Moons was a thriving family owned sandwich shop and grocery. With my grandmother paying bills and taxes in the back, my grandfather, Julius Daniel Rowe was making sandwiches, cashing payrolls, preparing the soup and cleaning the tables. My mom, aunt, and uncle, also had a play in the business. They all cleaned the tables, waited, and took orders. My grandmother's
Due to today’s reliance on instantaneous service, most Americans cannot picture a world without fast food, TV dinners, and frozen sections in supermarkets. Yet, only sixty-five years ago or so, most of the United States had never even heard of a drive-through lane. The gigantic shift from hot, home-cooked dinners to meals birthed from bags and boxes was largely spurred by targeted advertising due to political and social context. During World War II, for example, five million women flooded into the workforce, filling the jobs left by men heeding their country’s draft for the army. When these soldiers returned, most women were forced to leave their work to return to the home. But having tasted freedom, women yearned for