Using Data to Understand Limited Supermarket Access Areas and Market Viability

 

What you get on PolicyMap

PolicyMap offers TRF’s Limited Supermarket Access (LSA) data for free for the entire nation. This includes:

  • LSA area location at the Census block group level

  • Average LSA score

  • Number of limited service stores in the LSA area

  • Percentage of grocery retail expenditure leakage in the LSA area

  • How LSA areas compare to non-LSA areas  

  • Information on total retail grocery demand in dollars

  • Grocery retail expenditure leakage expressed in square footage of retail required to capture that demand

You can overlay these areas on any of publicly available information such as demographics, income, health, crime and more to learn more about the nature of these areas. Click here to register for free.

For Subscribers:

PolicyMap also offers subscribers the ability to get a a deeper understanding of the Limited Supermarket Access (LSA) areas in your market. This includes the ability to:

  • Generate quick market studies on an area

  • Create custom regions

  • Upload point data through the Do-It-Yourself Uploader

Call us today at 1-866-923-MAPS (6277) or visit http://www.policymap.com/subscribe to learn more about subscribing to PolicyMap.

Going Further With the Data

TRF's Policy Solutions offers customized research and data analysis for federal agencies, state and local governments, foundations, independent research organizations and other policymakers trying to:

  • Understand the severity and location of food access problems within an area
  • Design, evaluate or quantify the impact of lending programs to finance supermarket development,
  • Understand the level of competition within a market place based upon the extent to which an area is dominated by one or two food purveyors as opposed to one in which there is competition among many

For questions about in-depth food access analysis or other related analysis for your area, call TRF at 215.574.5800 or email PolicySolutions@trfund.com.

Examples:

Brookings Institution

TRF completed an in-depth food access analysis for 10 metro areas across the country for the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program. The analysis provides estimates on the extent of the food access problem and an aggregated summary of the LAA population in these metro areas. The Brookings Institution, with the support of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, has made this this information available through the PolicyMap platform.

U.S. Dept. of the Treasury's CDFI Fund

For the CDFI Fund, TRF studied the extent to which there are economic reasons for the lack of supermarkets in distressed urban areas. TRF explored how various financing strategies help to mitigate those issues. The study also assessed the impacts of supermarket development in urban and other underserved places. Click here for the complete study.