The changing landscape of food deserts

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• Depending on definitional parameters, estimates indicate that somewhere between 35.2 million and 83.5 million individuals

• Further, racial and economic disparities in food access persist across the country, with approximately 30 percent more non-white residents facing limited access to food retail than their white counterparts

• From 2015 to 2019, Walmart closed a total of 223 stores in the United States of America, creating at least 3 new food deserts and another 31 neighbourhoods in 15 states that no longer sell fresh produce and meat

• Walmart entering a region can result in social concerns, including weakened union bargaining power, reduced wages and benefits, and decreased employment levels

• Large supercentres also evoke considerable worry about the viability of local retail. For example, a report by

• Walmart on 125th street in Harlem, New York would result in 25 percent of the nearby supermarkets and bodegas going out of business within a year

• Such concerns magnify the potential impact of superstore closings on communities.

• Taken together, this suggests that dollar-store chains are contributing to growing economic and health disparities in rural and low-income communities across the United States of America.

• Dollar stores typically do not carry fresh

• produce and their selection of food is mostly processed