In an effort to pressure Stop & Shop to change its pricing in certain community stores, youth organizers with the Hyde Square Task Force in Jamaica Plain are calling on the grocery chain to use its consumer data profits to eliminate the price inequities the group uncovered in a study last year.
The group’s demand comes nearly a year after it probed the effects of inflation on low-income families, and found that a shopping cart of items at their neighborhood Stop & Shop in Jackson Square cost $34 more than a similar list at a Stop & Shop in suburban Dedham.
“It would be a really big win for the community if we were to get those prices to be more equitable and more affordable for the people these stores are supposed to be serving,” said Euniss Yoyo, one of the nonprofit’s youth organizers.
In the letter sent to the Quincy-based supermarket company Tuesday, the task force suggested the chain’s parent, Ahold Delhaize, use the money it made from selling consumer data to address Stop & Shop’s existing price disparities.
Ahold Delhaize, based in the Netherlands, reported last June that it had reached half of its roughly $1.1 billion goal of selling online advertisements and information on consumer data. It is unclear how much the company earns from individually collecting and monetizing shopper habits, but Ahold Delhaize chief executive Frans Muller told Reuters at the time it uses its profits to keep food prices low in spite of inflation.
“Since Stop & Shop is making millions from capturing and selling private and personal information of its customers, we would like to respectfully request that Stop & Shop use these profits to create price equity across your chain,” the task force letter reads. “Families in Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, Dorchester and Mission Hill would save thousands of dollars per year if they paid the same grocery prices as families in Dedham.”
When asked about its consumer data policy, Stop & Shop referred to its privacy statement, which states the company might sell unidentifiable data to “third-party partners who specialize in customer insights and provide other customer-focused services to us.” Customers are also able to opt out of data collection.
The store also reiterated in a statement that the group’s shopping list included “a small sliver of the tens of thousands” of products sold in the Jackson Square and Dedham stores, and that prices at other Boston stores — Roslindale and Hyde Park — were similar to Dedham’s. It has called the study “misleading,” and said it does not factor an area’s socioeconomic makeup when setting prices, and instead weighs factors such as “rent, labor costs, store size, and store offerings.”
But Yoyo believes the youth group’s work has standing. “It’s right there for you to see: people in other stores are paying less money based off of where they’re located. I’m not sure how you can disprove that.”
In their original report, the students wrote that households spending $300 on groceries each week would be spending $2,808 per year more at the Jamaica Plain store than at the Dedham one. This past fall, they produced a second study that analyzed prices at Stop & Shop locations in Grove Hall, South Bay, and Mission Hill, and found comparable price differences to Dedham.
Following the group’s initial study and the media attention that came with it, Stop & Shop met with the Hyde Square Task Force teens to discuss the grocery chain’s business model. The corporation pointed to some of its efforts to address food insecurity in Boston neighborhoods, including opening two pantries at Dimock Health Center and Roxbury Community College last year.
Nevertheless, task force members said they left with many unanswered questions. Namely, the company’s handling of consumer data. When the group asked questions about the data during the meeting, “the company’s lawyer forcefully ordered the conversation to stop immediately,” the group said in their letter. The store later responded to the allegation.
Dereck Medina, a youth organizer who worked on the Hyde Square study, said he hopes the continued pressure his group is putting on Stop & Shop ensures families across Boston can have adequate access to groceries at equitable prices.
“If we can change Stop & Shop’s mind, then that means we can change other people’s minds,” Medina said. “We can change other people’s mindsets and make them see that what they’re doing is not fair to people who want healthy, affordable food.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include links to a response from Stop & Shop.
Tiana Woodard can be reached at tiana.woodard@globe.com. Follow her @tianarochon.