Mexican households’ purchases of foods and beverages vary by store-type, taxation status, and SES

Abstract

Where people shop for food is often linked to the healthiness of food purchases. In Mexico, no research has examined the connection between where people shop, what they buy, and their socioeconomic status (SES). Mexico’s sugary beverage and junk food taxes have made households decrease purchases of taxed products. However, whether households have changed where they shop is unknown. To address this gap, we use a repeated cross-sectional analysis of household packaged food and beverage purchases from the Nielsen Mexico Consumer Panel Survey from 2012 to 2015 (n > 5500 households). We examine changes in the volume of the purchase of taxed and untaxed products from different store-types (i.e., convenience stores, supermarkets, traditional retailers, wholesalers, home water-delivery, and others) by SES using multivariate linear regression models. Results show that high-SES households purchased more foods and beverages at all store-types except for low-SES who purchased the most foods and taxed beverages at traditional retailers. Purchases of taxed foods and beverages from traditional retailers significantly decreased for low-SES and middle-SES households and from supermarkets for middle-SES and high-SES households. Purchases of untaxed beverages from wholesalers significantly increased for middle-SES households and from convenience stores for high-SES households. Our findings suggest that consumers choose different stores to purchase beverages than to purchase foods and that taxes may have differentially affected each store-type.