More and more SNAP recipients gravitating toward big-box retailers, Numerator says

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/38456232

The shutdown will halt about $8 billion a month in federal food assistance. Walmart captures 24% of all SNAP shopper spending, according to Numerator’s 2025 SNAP Evolution report—triple Kroger’s share and far ahead of Costco, Amazon and Sam’s Club.

Walmart was the first retailer to accept SNAP online in all 50 states in 2023 and launched the Walmart+ Assist program, which offers half-price memberships for those receiving aid.

“If SNAP payments stop, spending by the lowest income groups will fall,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of data and analytics firm GlobalData. “Walmart gets a plurality of the spending, so it will be hit the hardest.”

This was somewhat epiphanic for me.

I already recognized companies such as Walmart were subsidizing pay through social programs such as SNAP and essential funneling/laundering tax payer money to their executives.

This headline made me further realize they’re not only making taxpayers subsidize wages, they’ve also effectively turned the USD into a form of company scrip. While that scrip can be spent at some other locations I bet a large percent of funneled right back to e.g. Walmart itself. If you already work at Walmart it makes spending your SNAP benefit there easier.

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
      13·
      2 days ago

      If it was just them, it wouldn’t be a bad thing. This could escalate into something much bigger and uglier than just a corporation losing money. And a lot who will get hurt voted against the damn leopards, yet here they are roaming around.

    • Prove_your_argument@piefed.socialEnglish
      52·
      2 days ago

      People go to walmart for groceries because they’re cheaper than a lot of the other options.

      Up here around Boston your cheap choices are literally Market Basket or Walmart. Everything else is substantially more expensive. Wholefoods might have a cute nickname of whole paycheck, but stop and shop, shaws, trader joe’s and others are not really cheaper nowadays and the quality of all of them has gone downhill.

      Market Basket is currently undergoing a leadership battle where the guy who has been keeping prices low and employees’ well compensated is being pushed out. If they go the way of everybody else… walmart is substantially cheaper.

      To that end, how do you suggest people with very tight budgets that use snap benefits afford groceries? Are you expecting everyone to rely on food banks exclusively? They literally do not have all kinds of things in my area, or at least didn’t when I was young and my parents had to rely on it. I don’t have SNAP and have never had it because i’m fortunate, but it’s not about me. It’s about the people who need it.