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Time for a shift in focus to improve food affordability for remote customers
Author(s) -
Ferguson Megan,
King Alastair,
Brimblecombe Julie K
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/mja15.00868
Subject(s) - corporation , citation , library science , darwin (adl) , sociology , political science , engineering , computer science , law , systems engineering
The price differences between remote stores and urban supermarkets are published annually for a small range of products in the Northern Territory, and less frequently in some other states. We recently published information on the price differences for a larger range of foods commonly purchased in remote NT communities, and found that the greatest proportion of food spending is for packaged groceries. Packaged, fresh, healthier and less healthy categories of foods were all more expensive in remote stores than in urban supermarkets. Packaged products as a category were considerably more expensive; the price difference (67%) was almost twice that for fresh products (36%). The differences for packaged groceries were lower if prices were compared with non-discounted prices in urban supermarkets, indicating the role that promotional pricing plays in driving food prices. Further analysis using our original methods and based on a modified star rating system found that the average price difference between remote stores and urban supermarkets for healthier products was 47%; this was a significant disparity, although lower than that for less healthy products (74%). This is especially important for remote store customers, as in our study 74% of healthier products were packaged.