Buying groceries at dollar stores may save shoppers money at the checkout, but the cheaper bill could come with a hidden cost to their health, according to startling new research.
A UC Riverside study found that greater access to dollar stores was linked to higher rates of obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes.
Meanwhile, access to traditional grocery stores was associated with better health outcomes and the findings held across the US even after researchers accounted for factors such as income and unemployment levels.
“I want to raise awareness that higher grocery costs are pushing people to buy highly processed, lower-quality food at dollar stores, and it is negatively impacting their health in a similar way to fast food,” study first author Ryan Bruellman, a UCR genetics, genomics and bioinformatics doctoral student, said.
The study examined stores including Dollar General, Dollar Tree, the 99 Cent Store and Family Dollar, which together accounted for roughly 34,000 locations.
“Across the US there are more dollar stores than traditional grocery stores,” Bruellman said.
Dollar stores are currently classified by the Census Bureau as general merchandise outlets rather than grocery stores, meaning they are often excluded from research on food consumption, according to UC Riverside.
For the study, Bruellman analyzed health data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 500 Cities Project, which covers major metropolitan areas and cities across the continental US, including greater Los Angeles and the Inland Empire.
He used geographic mapping software to calculate how many dollar and traditional grocery stores were within a 10-minute drive of residential areas, while also incorporating a social vulnerability index that measured factors such as people’s ability to afford groceries.
Dollar stores were significantly associated with health outcomes across all regions studied, although the strength of the effect varied.
In the South and Midwest, where the ratio of dollar stores to traditional grocery stores was roughly even, the influence appeared greater.
“I think the sheer number of dollar stores in these regions is higher so their influence is greater,” Bruellman explained.
The results also differed between cities.
In Philadelphia, for example, the data did not capture bodegas and smaller independent grocery stores, which Bruellman said likely reduced the impact of dollar-store shopping.
Bruellman said reducing the number of dollar stores isn’t the answer.
Instead, he suggested expanding the healthier food choices available to people who already depend on them.
One possibility would be partnerships with local farmers that could put more fresh fruits and vegetables on dollar store shelves.
“Ideally you’d have the healthier options available inside the dollar store,” he said.
