The Food Retail Hierarchy and Food Import Dependency in a Dominican Town

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2010-05-03
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Virginia Tech
Abstract

This research examines the percentage of imported foods sold in stores at three levels of the food retail hierarchy—small-sized retail food stores, known locally as colmados; medium-sized food retail stores, or super-colmados; and the large supermarkets, or supermercados —in the Dominican Republic. It also considers variations in sources of imported foods for the three types of stores. Data were collected during fieldwork conducted in Verónâ a small town located in the province of La Altagracia on the eastern end of the Dominican Republic—over a three-week period from August 15 to September 9, 2009. A stratified random sample was selected along the primary highway in Verón consisting of 15 stores. At these stores, the principal investigator collected inventory data and conducted interviews with storeowners and employees. The findings suggest that food import dependency increases as the level in the food retail hierarchy, or store size, increases.

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Dominican Republic, food import dependency, food retail hierarchy
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