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A typology of urban speciality shops selling rural provenance food products – a contribution from Portugal

Alexandre Silva (Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal)
Elisabete Figueiredo (GOVCOPP, Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal)
Mónica Truninger (Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal)
Celeste Eusébio (GOVCOPP, Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal)
Teresa Forte (Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal)

British Food Journal

ISSN: 0007-070X

Article publication date: 29 April 2021

Issue publication date: 2 November 2021

408

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

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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