LIU Bochu, ZHOU Kaichen, LEI An’ni, WANG Yuxia, WANG Lan

Keywords： Takeaway Food; Online Meal Delivery Service; Online Retail; Food Environment; Built Environment

Abstract：

The excessive use of online meal delivery services may negatively impact population health and urban vitality. Before developing urban policies to reduce undue dependence on meal delivery services, it is crucial to identify the environmental and demographic factors affecting their usage. This paper selects Hongkou District, Shanghai, for a case study. It integrates data from multiple sources, such as online food consumption, built environment, and demographic characteristics, to explore the determinants of online meal delivery service usage. By expanding the two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method, we estimate the frequency of online meal delivery use and demonstrated the spatial distribution of online meal delivery usage. Subsequently, spatial econometric models are employed to examine how food retail environment, built environment, and socio-demographics influence online meal consumption. It is found that the number of restaurants, road density, and the number of usual residents and employees positively impact the total frequency of online meal consumption. The per capita frequency of online meal consumption significantly decreases with an increase in the number of grocery retailers within 1 200 m, restaurants within the neighborhood, and the proportion of older and middle-to-high income residents but increases significantly with a rising number of restaurants within the 15-minute life circle and the proportion of employees. Ultimately, this paper discusses the implications of this case study for urban planning interventions on food consumption and directions for future research.

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