A typology of urban speciality shops selling rural provenance food products – a contribution from Portugal
ISSN: 0007-070X
Article publication date: 29 April 2021
Issue publication date: 2 November 2021
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore and typify the characteristics and diverse features of urban speciality stores selling rural provenance food, taking the case of three cities in Portugal.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was based on hierarchical cluster analysis, performed upon data collected from a survey to 113 shops, located in Aveiro (n = 15), Lisbon (n = 56) and Porto (n = 42).
Findings
The study identified three clusters of shops according to the type of rural provenance products sold, services provided and clientele characteristics: the wine focused, the rural provenance focused and the generalist. The study confirms that in Portugal, small food retail outlets, with different rural provenance patterns and degrees of specialization have considerably grown in large cities over the last decade.
Research limitations/implications
The study contributes to typifying urban speciality food stores selling rural provenance products and to addressing critical research gaps on this topic. The study highlights the dynamism of small food retail outlets and their significance, mediating and responding to changing patterns of food consumption in urban spaces.
Originality/value
This study contributes to a better understanding and characterization of food speciality shops in urban settings and their links with rural territories of provenance, an under-researched topic on the food retail literature.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the financial support to FCT/MCTES through national funds, and the cofunding by the FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020, for the research project STRINGS – Selling The Rural IN (urban) Gourmet Stores – establishing new liaisons between town and country through the sale and consumption of rural products (PTDC/GES-OUT/29281/2017/ POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029281). https://www.stringsproject.pt/. The authors are also grateful to Carlos Ribeiro, to the production of the maps included in the article.
Citation
Silva, A., Figueiredo, E., Truninger, M., Eusébio, C. and Forte, T. (2021), "A typology of urban speciality shops selling rural provenance food products – a contribution from Portugal", British Food Journal, Vol. 123 No. 12, pp. 3902-3917. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-11-2020-1045
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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