The supermarkets in the center of the stage: business strategies and price formation in the urban food supply

Abstract

In a global context of rising food prices and under intensive inflationary inertia at the local level, 37% of the argentine population suffers moderate and severe food insecurity. This article analyzes the axes of the sectoral and spatial functioning of the supermarkets and seeks to understand how they structure the urban food supply. The price formation processes that take place within the thousands of branches and millions of square meters of supermarket chains configure distorting and inflationary impacts. These are reproduced both within each one of the branches, limiting competition on the shelves, while they reach the other commercial typologies at a neighborhood scale, affecting the supply conditions and the food price formation.