The role of traditional retail markets in addressing urban food deserts

This paper refreshes the debate around urban food deserts and improves the evidence base for the social value of traditional markets. It draws upon a wider project that brings together the markets sector and policy makers to develop new evidence, tools and insights to understand and enhance the community value of traditional retail markets. One important part of that community value is the provision of accessible, good quality, healthy and affordable fresh food. Using a case study of Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Grainger Market comprising a large-scale interviewer-administered survey of market users, supplemented with insights from focus groups and interviews with key stakeholders, we aim to identify and understand the role of the market as a core food and drink shopping destination. Drawing on external indicators of neighbourhood type, grocery retail accessibility and the presence of characteristics associated with food deserts, we demonstrate the importance of traditional retail markets, such as Grainger as part of the grocery retail supply side, especially among more vulnerable consumers including the elderly and those living in relatively more deprived neighbourhoods. To do so we utilise measures of consumer interactions with the retail supply side as derived from the consumer survey data, with all data available for wider-reuse by the research community. Whilst we make policy recommendations relevant to the Newcastle case study, our objective is for this work – and the provision of associated data – to spark greater recognition among policy makers, academics and the retail sector itself of the important role of traditional retail markets in food and drink provision.