What does it say about your neighborhood if the supermarket isn’t so super?

An endcap display of marked-down items at the Stop & Shop on 460 Blue Hill Ave. in Dorchester shows discounts on cake frosting, two for $3, and cake mix, four for $5.CHASEEDAW GILES/KHN

A mother-and-daughter team went comparison-shopping at 5 Boston-area locations of Stop & Shop to see what grocery store shelves revealed about inequity in America.

Though I grew up in Roxbury, “the heart of Black culture in Boston,” I now live in Los Angeles, where I typically shop for groceries at Whole Foods Market or Trader Joe’s. Their produce is fresh, green, abundant. Organic options beckon as you walk in the door.

So it gnawed at me, a Black woman, when I recently walked into a supermarket in a lower-income LA neighborhood and was greeted instead by an array of processed, high-sugar, high-sodium foods — often offered with a nice discount: Coca-Cola products, five 2-liter bottles for $5; sugary cereals, two for $4; boxed brownie and cake mixes, four for $5.

By Chaseedaw Giles Boston Globe, Updated February 15, 2022, 9:03 a.m.