USDA report: Rural residents saw more dollar stores, fewer grocery stores from 1990-2015 - Entrepreneur Generations

Rural residents have faced a host of challenges in accessing groceries, according to a new report about rural food retailing trends from 1990 to 2015 by the Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service. One issue is the trend of large chain stores replacing small, independent establishments. Higher travel costs to access food are another problem, especially for residents in high-poverty areas with shrinking populations. Here are some other findings as of 2015, the most recent data available:

• There were 23 U.S. counties without any food retailers; all were nonmetropolitan.
• 44 counties had no grocery store; 40 were rural nonmetro and 4 were urban nonmetro (nonmetro counties with an urban population of 2,500 or more).
• 41 nonmetro counties had one food retailer and 115 nonmetro counties had one grocery store.
• The median nonmetro county had 16 food retailers and 7 grocery stores.
• Grocery stores were the most prevalent food retailer in nonmetro counties. The next-most prevalent, in order, were convenience stores, specialty food stores, dollar stores, and supercenters.
• Single-location grocery stores were more prevalent than chain stores, but had lower average sales and employment than chain stores.

And here are some trends over the 25 years covered by the report:

• Dollar stores and supercenters are the only types of food retailers whose rural numbers increased; the number of grocery stores and convenience stores peaked in 2009 and have been declining since then, and the number of specialty food stores has been falling since its 2011 peak. 
• The percentage of rural nonmetro counties with fewer than 8 food retailers per 10,000 people increased from 11% in 1990 to 27% in 2015. 
• The number of food retailers per capita decreased by 19% for rural nonmetro counties.
• The percentage of rural nonmetro counties with no food retailers increased from 1% to 3%.
• The median number of grocery stores per capita decreased by 40% for rural and urban nonmetro counties.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2SfbZ24 USDA report: Rural residents saw more dollar stores, fewer grocery stores from 1990-2015 - Entrepreneur Generations

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