Dry SNAP funding could affect your wallet, even if you never received it
Alison Patton
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
SNAP users won’t receive new funds for November starting Saturday, unless Congress can find a way to fund the government. This means grocery stores are losing out on SNAP dollars.
Dan Shaul, the Missouri Grocers Association Executive State Director, said this could be detrimental to grocery stores in food deserts, which are typically in rural areas where access to food is already limited.
“Food deserts could have 30, 40, 50% of their sales going to SNAP recipients, and that could be a problem when you lose that type of revenue,” Shaul said.
Gov. Mike Kehoe announced Wednesday that $15 million is heading to crucial food programs, and some grocery stores, like Schnucks, are doing local food drives to support food banks.
But those efforts don’t replace SNAP dollars.
Shaul said some grocery stores might not make it through November, depending on how long the government shutdown lasts, because some stores were breaking even before SNAP benefits were paused.
That won’t be a problem for grocery stores in areas like Columbia, where consumers have many options to buy groceries from.
Peter Mueser, an economics professor at the University of Missouri, said some stores might have to lower prices soon.
“In the short run, you might expect they [prices] would decline because they’ve ordered food that will spoil if it’s not sold, and so grocery stores will have an incentive to lower prices,” Mueser said.
Mueser said stores might order less food in the long run. Everything rests on how long the government is shutdown for.
Shaul said he’s worried that some customers who use SNAP won’t know that they don’t have money loaded until they reach the register.
“There’s going to be a large amount of people out there that have no idea, and they’re going to come into the store just like they normally did, in normal Saturday morning, push their cart to the checkout, and they’re going to be told they have no money,” Shaul said.
He said the grocer’s association has been reminding its retailers to talk with their employees and let them know that customers could become upset.