Pricey Grocery Stores Attract Skinniest Shoppers Obese customers far more common at low-cost markets; poverty a factor By JoNel Aleccia May 24, 2010 The percentage of food shoppers who are obese is almost 10 times higher at low-cost grocery stores compared with upscale markets, a small new study shows. Researchers say the striking findings underscore poverty as a key factor in America’s growing girth. In the Seattle area, a region with an average obesity rate of about 20 percent, only about 4 percent of shoppers who filled their carts at Whole Foods Market stores were obese, compared with nearly 40...