In Podcast Interview, Professor Chandrasekher Discusses Research on Consumer Redlining

Professor Andrea Cann Chandrasekher spoke to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Building Local Power podcast about her paper “The ‘Good’ Starbucks: Consumer Redlining in Large American Chain Stores.”

The paper, as Chandrasekher explains in the abstract, focuses on “understudied type of retail discrimination called consumer redlining … when chain stores in Black neighborhoods offer a lower-quality consumer experience than those same chain stores in white neighborhoods: shelves are understocked, food is sold past its expiration date, and stores are understaffed leading to longer wait times, dirtier facilities and bathrooms, and disorganized inventory.” Chandrasekher’s paper documents and explores the causes of consumer redlining in more than 400 American chain stores and eight large metropolitan areas.

“What really surprised me is that this happens within the same chain of stores where presumably the consumer experience is supposed to be broadly consistent across different locations,” Chandrasekher says on the podcast.

Professor Chandrasekher's educational background includes a J.D. from Stanford Law School and a Ph.D. in Economics from UC Berkeley. She has taught as a visiting assistant professor at Northwestern School of Law and served as a fellow at Stanford Law School. Her research interests include criminal law, law and economics, quantitative methods, criminal justice public policy analysis, and policing.