Supermarket Store Locations as a Proxy for Neighbourhood Health, Wellbeing, and Wealth

The “Waitrose effect” captures the notion that the presence of stores operated by Waitrose, an upmarket UK grocer, increases the value of nearby real estate. This paper considers the broader relationship between Waitrose store locations and neighbourhood type by comparing the health and wealth of neighbourhoods with and without access to Waitrose stores in England. Whilst we do not seek to imply causality, we demonstrate better health, wellbeing, and wealth in neighbourhoods falling within a Waitrose store catchment. In those neighbourhoods, median home prices were almost 2.5 times higher (in urban neighbourhoods) compared to neighbourhoods served only by other major grocers, which formed our control groups. Neighbourhoods in Waitrose catchment areas fare better on indicators of health too. In urban neighbourhoods falling within a Waitrose store catchment (accounting for 98% of Waitrose catchment neighbourhoods), residents are more likely to self-report very good health than those in our largest control groups. The prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders is also significantly lower in those neighbourhoods than in the control groups. Our findings strongly suggest that the presence or absence of a specific retailer (in this case, Waitrose, a mature and well-established chain) could serve as a proxy for neighbourhood characteristics. This could supplement existing multivariate indicators of neighbourhood type. We recommend more research to identify the extent to which locations of a single retail chain—across a variety of sectors—can encode neighbourhood health, wellbeing, and wealth. If the patterns observed with Waitrose stores hold true for other retailers, then the mix of retail stores within a given locality could serve as a useful proxy for neighbourhood type, with the potential for the change in retail mix to highlight changes in neighbourhood characteristics or composition.