UC San Diego

Government studies and public health literature have long promoted supermarkets as the optimal retail outlet for affordable, healthy food. This emphasis on large, nationwide, corporate-owned stores obscures the ability of other, smaller retail outlets to provide fresh produce in low-income neighborhoods. While, indeed, many urban neighborhoods lack retailers that offer produce for sale, ethnic enclaves offer an alternative image of a fresh food environment within a low-income community. This study looks at the presence and price of fresh produce in three San Diego neighborhoods that are classified as "low- income." The results of this study counter the characterization of small, independent grocery stores as unable or unwilling to offer produce at low prices. Both predominantly-mexicano neighborhoods have a greater number of stores with produce for sale than the non-immigrant neighborhood in Southeast San Diego. Also, the average price of produce in the stores in these immigrant neighborhoods does not differ significantly from prices offered by a discount supermarket in the non-immigrant neighborhood. The persistence of these ethnic enclaves that demand produce and place great importance on the culture of the mercado creates an alternative economic sphere in which small stores are responsive to the demands of neighborhood residents. This provides affordable healthy food to low-income households, allows immigrants to hold on to their own ideas of cuisine, and prevents coerced assimilation to the unhealthy diet of American society