The Relationship between Corner Stores and the Ultra-processed Food and Beverage Industry in Guatemala: Stocking, Advertising, and Trust

ABSTRACT

Corner stores are the main venue for ultra-processed food sales in Guatemala. We conducted 30 interviews with corner store proprietors to determine the strategies used by food and beverage industry distributors to deliver products and place point-of-sale advertising. We find that proprietors and distributors develop long-term relationships which influence promotions, product placement, stocking decisions, and point-of-sale advertisement of ultra-processed foods (UPF). In addition, proprietors are often reluctant to independently stock or recommend healthy food products because of perceived financial risk or customer dissatisfaction. From a healthcare policy perspective, regulation of proprietor-distributor relationships is a possible strategy to reduce UPF consumption.

KEYWORDS:

• Store proprietors
• corner stores
• distributor
• Guatemala
• food and beverage industry
• foodscape
• food environment

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the insights from Violeta Chacón, PhD candidate, from Guatemala and Peter Busse, PhD from Perú when designing the interview guide. Also, they acknowledge Gala Arnaud, BA in anthropology, for transcribing and coding interviews. They are grateful to the participants for their time.

Authorship

JB, AC, and SM conceived the study. AC gathered and analyze participant data. All authors participated in interpretation of findings and drafting and critically revising the manuscript for intellectual content.

Financial Support

This work was supported by International Development Research Centre (IDRC) from Canada (grant number: 108645-002). The funders had no role in the design, analysis or writing of this article.

Ethics of human subject participation

The study protocol was approved by Independent Ethics Committee, Hospital Esperanza, Faculty of Medicine, Francisco Marroquin University, Guatemala, C.A. (CE/FM-UFM003-19). Written informed consent was obtained for all participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of IDRC or its Board of Governors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada;International Development Research Centre. [108645-002];