Sociodemographic disparities and the distribution of open and closed food outlets in the Hartford area of connecticut

This study analyzes the Hartford Area of Connecticut to determine whether food outlet distribution is associated with census tract racial characteristics, median household income, educational attainment, population density, and historic redlining. This novel research article queries the following: (1) How are open and closed food outlets distributed? (2) How is the racial composition of the census tract related to food outlet distribution? (3) How is the distribution of food outlets related to historic redlining? (4) How is income related to food outlet distribution? (5) How is educational attainment related to food outlet distribution? The paper examines the concepts of supermarket redlining and vanishing food infrastructure and assesses their applicability to the study site. Food store information was collected from Data Axle from 2023 to 2024. It analyzes 1568 open and 250 closed food outlets. We studied the three cities and found that almost a third of the open food outlets were restaurants, about 17% were small groceries and convenience stores, almost 8% were emergency food assistance venues, and just over 3% were supermarkets and large grocery stores. Census tracts with the highest percentage of People of Color had the highest population density and the highest overall density of open food outlets. Median household income was the most reliable predictor of the distribution of open and closed food outlets.