GROCERY PRICE DIFFERENTIALS ADVERSE TO THE ELDERLY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES

The increasing number and proportion of older people in our population and their migration into rural areas suggest that research is needed to examine the many socioeconomic problems unique to these persons. This study examined possible economic discrimination against the rural aged by testing the hypothesis that grocery stores in rural communities, especially in those rural communities experiencing sagging economics, may be surviving by practicing pricing policies that are adversely affecting the elderly residing in those communities. The hypothesis was tested using an ordinary least squares multiple regression equation, where four community grocery food and nonfood price indices were selected as dependent variables and eleven explanatory variables were chosen. The four price indices, a dairy index, a meat index, a canned goods index, and a composite index, were generated through the use of questionnaires sent in January 1979 to 415 retail grocery stores located in 181 randomly selected Nebraska communities ranging in 1977 population from 266 to 24,238; 140 questionnaires were returned, a response rate of 34%. With the exception of the dairy index, this study found no significant price differences in the selected food and nonfood items of the stores located in various Nebraska communities. These findings tended to reinforce the majority of similar empirical studies conducted in urban areas testing for possible price differences of similar stores located in different socioeconomic areas in cities