Why do so many corner stores sell mostly unhealthy items like junk food, alcohol, and cigarettes?
While the majority of products sold in corner stores today are unhealthy, it hasn’t always been that way. Until the 1960s, many neighborhoods had small-scale stores that sold primarily healthy foods and other necessities. The shift to current patterns of large supermarkets in wealthier areas and very small stores with primarily unhealthy items in low-income areas is due to various social and economic trends. These include middle class flight from urban areas, economic development patterns that favored suburbs over urban cores, and aggressive promotion of unhealthy items by manufacturers. Grocery industry changes also played a major role. A trend toward very large supermarkets made it hard to find new store sites in urban areas; and increased control of the grocery supply chain by a few large companies eliminated many grocery distributors that once served smaller stores. In addition to these broader trends, corner store owners tend to favor items that are easy for them to order, stock,
