Lauren Chenarides grew up about an hour north of New York City with no direct connection to agriculture. But like many others with culinarily talented grandparents, she discovered a love for food while cooking with her grandmother.
“My first entry point into agriculture was through the kitchen,” she said. “I always had a curiosity about where food comes from.”
A gifted math student, she soon discovered that those two interests could intersect and lead to meaningful research. A professor at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, where she earned her undergraduate degree in mathematics, steered her toward a career in ag.
Chenarides remembers being unsure about her major and finding guidance from her professor. “She asked if I had ever heard of agricultural economics. It seemed to include everything I was interested in,” she said.
She went on to Penn State, where she earned her master’s and Ph.D. in agricultural economics with a focus on food access. That led to her first teaching job at Arizona State.
Her skills as a data-focused researcher proved valuable at ASU, where she was on the agribusiness faculty. While at ASU, Chenarides began looking at dollar stores and wondering why some critics bashed them while many consumers counted on them for food.
“Dollar stores were really being vilified in the media, and yet they were selling food – and I wanted to understand why,” she said. “I try to strip away the part that worries about what people should be eating and focus on the fact that people need food and, just as important, they need access to food. Dollar stores provide both.”
A common perception among those who oppose dollar stores is that their presence drives supermarkets out of business.
What she discovered was that dollar stores and supermarkets, even when located near one another, provide options consumers want. And in areas where supermarkets are absent, dollar stores are the only viable food source available to consumers.
“There’s demand for dollar stores in some areas where there is not a supermarket for miles around,” she said. “And the dollar stores are selling products at a price consumers are willing to pay.”
She compared the situation to the pushback Walmart received when they opened stores near locations of traditional supermarkets. Some condemned Walmart and claimed the company was trying to put “mom and pop” grocers out of business, but Chenarides said that simply has not been the case.
“Actually, Walmart helps support those stores in a complementary way,” she said. “It’s an example of how economics work. If lower-income shoppers can buy food at a dollar store cheaper than they can at a supermarket, why wouldn’t we want that? It gives them more money to spend elsewhere, which helps the economy.”
After six years in Arizona, she wanted a change. “The one thing I missed at ASU was the connection to the land-grant mission because a lot of my work is community-based,” she said. “I wanted to build on that more, and CSU is very committed to its land-grant mission and community-based research and outreach.”
Growing up near the far reaches of the Adirondack mountains, she loved the beautiful rolling hills and enjoyed family ski trips to Vermont in the winter. Born with a natural curiosity, she was in graduate school when she tried skiing in Colorado for the first time. She was not disappointed.
“Getting off the first chair lift at 12,000-plus feet, I was in awe of the scene around me,” she recalled. “I think that was the moment I fell in love with Colorado.”
She loved it so much that when the opportunity to live and work in the state came, she jumped at the chance. Today, she’s just finished her first year as an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics in Colorado State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
Her research into the role of dollar stores continues. She said sharing her research with her students helps them understand how food supply works – particularly in underserved areas.
