Ilyankou, I., Newing, A. orcid.org/0000-0002-3222-6640 and Hood, N. (2023) Supermarket Store Locations as a Proxy for Neighbourhood Health, Wellbeing, and Wealth. Sustainability, 15 (15). 11641. ISSN 2071-1050
Abstract
The “Waitrose effect” captures the notion that the presence of stores operated by Waitrose, an upmarket UK grocer, increases the value of nearby real estate. This paper considers the broader relationship between Waitrose store locations and neighbourhood type by comparing the health and wealth of neighbourhoods with and without access to Waitrose stores in England. Whilst we do not seek to imply causality, we demonstrate better health, wellbeing, and wealth in neighbourhoods falling within a Waitrose store catchment. In those neighbourhoods, median home prices were almost 2.5 times higher (in urban neighbourhoods) compared to neighbourhoods served only by other major grocers, which formed our control groups. Neighbourhoods in Waitrose catchment areas fare better on indicators of health too. In urban neighbourhoods falling within a Waitrose store catchment (accounting for 98% of Waitrose catchment neighbourhoods), residents are more likely to self-report very good health than those in our largest control groups. The prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders is also significantly lower in those neighbourhoods than in the control groups. Our findings strongly suggest that the presence or absence of a specific retailer (in this case, Waitrose, a mature and well-established chain) could serve as a proxy for neighbourhood characteristics. This could supplement existing multivariate indicators of neighbourhood type. We recommend more research to identify the extent to which locations of a single retail chain—across a variety of sectors—can encode neighbourhood health, wellbeing, and wealth. If the patterns observed with Waitrose stores hold true for other retailers, then the mix of retail stores within a given locality could serve as a useful proxy for neighbourhood type, with the potential for the change in retail mix to highlight changes in neighbourhood characteristics or composition.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | ‘Waitrose effect’; UK grocery retailing; store location; neighbourhood health; wellbeing and wealth |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Centre for Spatial Analysis & Policy (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 24 Aug 2023 11:12 |
Last Modified: | 24 Aug 2023 11:12 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/su151511641 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:202351 |