ABSTRACT
Objectives: The study is aimed at assessing and comparing the availability of healthy food among different typesof markets; the price of healthy food between supermarkets, groceries and convenience stores; as well as thepresence of the section that only contains healthy food. Methods: We divided markets into three categories(Supermarkets, Grocery stores, and Convenience stores) and divided Riyadh into 4 regions to ensure that the datarepresents the whole regions of Riyadh. The data was entered to Microsoft Excel 2010, and then transferred toStatistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Percentage was used to assess the level of the availability ofhealthy food and Chi-square was used to test for statistical differences. ANOVA and Post Hoc tests were used toassess the presence in difference of the price of healthy food. Results: Availability of healthy food items differsbased on the size of the stores. Large stores contain more vegetables and fruit groups than small stores. Onlydrinks group showed no significant difference (p-value 0.465) with the highest percentage of availability amongother groups; while, miscellaneous group showed the least percentage of availability between different markets.The difference in price between the three different commercial outlets is not significant except in meat group.Healthy food sections were found in two out of sixty markets. Conclusion: Availability of healthy food itemsincreases with the increase of stores’ size. There is no price difference between different markets except meatgroup. Healthy food sections were found in two out of sixty markets.