Mobile Grocery Store Shopping and Its Impact on Social Interaction

Abstract

In recent years, the problem of food deserts has been becoming more serious, especially in rural areas of Japan. Accordingly, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) published the “Shopping Accessibility Aid Manual” to showcase forward-thinking initiatives (e.g., mobile grocery stores). However, there are no appropriate statistical models that can evaluate the demand for shopping support services and their social benefits. Consequently, it may be difficult for local governments to evaluate the need for shopping support services from the perspectives of both demand and social benefits. This study focused on mobile grocery stores as one of the shopping support services and aimed to clarify the factors that influence (1) the frequency of mobile grocery store shopping and (2) the impact of mobile grocery store shopping on social interaction.