Study: Dollar store foods aren't doing harm to Americans' diets

UPI

2 days ago

Tufts University researchers say foods sold in discount stores like Dollar Tree, Family Dollar and Dollar General don't appear to be doing serious harm to Americans' diets. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo
Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar and other dollar stores are chock full of cheap, highly processed foods -- just the sort of eats that can lead to obesity, heart disease and other health problems.
But dollar store shoppers are surprisingly savvy, and the foods sold in these discount stores don't appear to be doing drastic harm to Americans' overall diets, researchers reported Aug. 11 in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
The total number of household calories purchased at dollar stores nearly doubled between 2008 and 2020, rising from 3.4% to 6.5% of a family's food purchases.
But the overall healthfulness of household food purchases has remained similar between those who shop at dollar stores and those who don't, researchers found.
That's because dollar store shoppers tend to purchase more than 90% of their family's calories at other stores that offer healthier options, the research team found.
"Some people seem to be going to dollar stores strategically to buy sweets and snacks, along with other packaged foods," senior researcher Sean Cash, chair of agriculture, food and environment at Tufts University in Boston, said in a news release.
Dollar stores have exploded in the U.S., with the three major chains operating more than 37,000 U.S. storefronts - more than Starbucks, Walmart, Target and McDonald's combined, researchers said in background notes.
These shops tend to sell packaged foods and beverages that are packed with calories but low in nutrients, researchers said. Only a small percentage carry produce or meats.
To see the impact these stores have had on the American diet, researchers examined food purchases made by 180,000 households in the U.S. between 2008 and 2020. They then used U.S. Department of Agriculture tools to estimate the dietary quality of these purchases.
Results showed that grocery stores do indeed offer healthier foods than those found at dollar stores, and that food bought at dollar stores tends to be lower in nutritional quality.
However, shoppers tend to be shrewd when strolling the aisles of a dollar store -- particularly folks in rural areas, where the nearest grocery store could be much farther away.
Households that rely on dollar stores have only modestly lower nutrition scores for their overall food purchases, researchers found.
Families who bought more food at dollar stores tended to partially compensate by purchasing healthier options elsewhere, the study says.
The average U.S. household is getting 55% of its non-restaurant calories from grocery stores and another 22% from club stores like Costco, researchers said.
"People go to different types of stores for different reasons and the dollar store is one that people choose because of the price advantage," said lead researcher Wenhui Feng, an assistant professor of public health and community medicine at Tufts University.
"There are a lot of concerns that foods on dollar store shelves are less healthy, but what's on the shelf does not equal what each household takes home," Feng added in a news release.
At least 25 local governments have adopted policies restricting the expansion of dollar stores, but they might have acted prematurely, Cash said.
"We need more data on the real effects of dollar stores on healthy eating, as some communities may be putting the policy cart before the horse," he said.
This study was funded by the USDA and Tufts University.
More information
Harvard Medical School has more on healthy nutrition.
Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.