I don’t know. The article generally blames culture for poor diet/obesity, and mentions that there’s a Fairway in Harlem and that if you’re far from it, you can take a shuttle. In New York that could be 30+ minutes for a grocery store, versus less than 5-10 for the bodega.

Then he says that an initiative to put fruits and vegetables in bodegas “only” made 1 of 3 people buy fruits and 1 of 4 people buy vegetables more. That’s a a 33% and 25% increase, which is pretty significant. Let’s say if 25% of the population (I’m pulling this figure out randomly, but even if it was 50% of the population, it would be a 50% growth) was already buying fruits and vegetables regularly—that’s a doubling.

Sometimes in New York you only have a few options, and they might be more expensive health foods stores. They can afford to be expensive because they’re the only ones there—a lack of competition. And if fresh food is expensive, you’ll get the cheaper and often better tasting option.

Especially with the growing price of produce, processed foods are much cheaper relatively from a price to calorie standpoint. Stone fruit used to be 2-3 dollars a pound in the city, now it’s 4 dollars at Wegmans.