Culture
Watch What Happens When You Track 493 People's Grocery Buying Habits
Researchers are using GPS devices to better understand where and how we get our food.
For the many complicated ways that people shop for groceries – Giant has cheaper chicken soup, Whole Foods has better broccoli, the checkout line at Publix is shorter at night – research models of how people get their food are, for the most part, remarkably simple.
"The literature has been primarily assuming that people shop in the supermarket that’s closest to their home," says Anju Aggarwal, a research associate with the University of Washington's Center for Public Health Nutrition. Or, maybe, you hit the supermarket or corner store that's next to your office. "All of the research has been based on that assumption around the work neighborhood or the home neighborhood."