Case Study: Flipp partners with Foursquare to reveal COVID’s impact on grocery shopping patterns

Flipp reveals COVID grocery shopping shifts in 2020 with Foursquare

The University of Toronto, in partnership with the shopping and deals app Flipp, sought to test assumptions about how the COVID-19 pandemic changed grocery shopping behavior, specifically if people shopped closer to home, at fewer stores, and less often. They partnered with Foursquare to understand how these patterns disproportionately affected different population segments.

Using Foursquare's geospatial data combined with Flipp's insights, the team analyzed travel distance, store visitation frequency, and store variety visited by residents in the greater Toronto area. Foursquare's data helped reveal that while all groups traveled shorter distances, lower-income populations reliant on public transportation were more restricted in their choices, negatively impacting access to variety and healthy food. The research outcomes are guiding governments and retailers, and the project is expanding across Canada for further academic publication.

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