I was homeless for three years in Saint Louis (also lived in West/South Chicago for some time) and was the healthiest I ever had been in terms of weight. You don’t have to patronize these places, even in so-called food deserts.
I think the working poor, who do not have any time to pick and choose what they eat, are worse off than let's say me when i was a homeless student with enough time to cook myself salads.
Wasn't in a food desert though, i don't think those exist in my country.
I was able to eat mostly fruit and veg for free from food banks that took maybe 15 min a day to visit. I also was not slovenly not working, I just didn’t have good habits to get out of my situation thanks to extreme mental illness and addiction. (Both of which are thankfully well under control now.)
In my experience, most large grocery stores funnel customers past the produce section first. So, if people simply grabbed the first edible things that they saw. . . However, I have lived primarily in rural and suburban areas of the US, so I don't know if that is generally the case.
That’s the case in nearly every proper supermarket I’ve ever visited on pretty much every continent. The only exception seems to be bodega-like corner stores.
It's the same way in urban grocery stores in the US. Produce is at the front, next to the entrance. Junk food is furthest from the entrance, in the back row of aisles.
I assume the grocer logic is something like "make them walk past and consider all the other stuff before they get to what they really want (junk food)"
