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USDA Threatens Stores Giving Discounts to People on Food Stamps

(newrepublic.com)
64 points mrtesthah | 3 comments | 04 Nov 25 16:30 UTC | HN request time: 0.04s | source
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chasd00 ◴[04 Nov 25 17:22 UTC] No.45813489[source]▶
Read the article and then you'll put away your pitchforks. A basic rule is snap recipients can't be treated differently than non-program members which seems reasonable.

"At issue is SNAP’s “Equal Treatment Rule,” which bars stores from either discriminating against people in the program or offering them favorable treatment. "

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pseudalopex ◴[04 Nov 25 17:26 UTC] No.45813542[source]▶
Forbidding charging SNAP recipients more is reasonable. Why is it reasonable to forbid charging SNAP recipients less?
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sslayer ◴[04 Nov 25 17:53 UTC] No.45813842[source]▶
To be a fair program it should not cause an undue burden on the participating stores.

Store A could advertise that it will provide a 10% discount to SNAP recipients. Now Stores B,C,D,etc.. have to match or beat to be competitive. This would ultimately introduce competitiveness into the market where it was meant to assist those less fortunate.

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ElevenLathe ◴[04 Nov 25 17:55 UTC] No.45813870[source]▶
Offering a discount is assisting the less fortunate, as far as I can tell: They will get more food per dollar on their bridge card, costing the government less. This is (almost) the same dynamic as forbidding Medicare to negotiate drug prices, isn't it?

I suppose chains could work around this by just lowering prices in neighborhoods with a lot of people on SNAP, which would actually be even better IMO, because it means lower food prices for entire low income neighborhoods, possibly even pushing shoppers from other neighborhoods to shop in these places and bring more money into the community. I would drive to the other side of the tracks if all my groceries cost 10% less.

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1. altairprime ◴[04 Nov 25 18:18 UTC] No.45814152[source]▶
To do that without being abused by rich bargain-hunters, you can add in the Costco membership model with geo-discounted signups.
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2. ElevenLathe ◴[04 Nov 25 19:16 UTC] No.45814825[source]▶
Now you're back to discriminating instead of treating all purchasers the same way, which was the whole point of the theorized workaround.
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3. altairprime ◴[04 Nov 25 21:00 UTC] No.45815829[source]▶
Geo-discounted membership fees aren’t food stamps pricing discrimination under the USDA restrictions. I’m not trying to unilaterally eliminate pricing differentials based on income, I’m just trying to find a way for a grocery store to lower the costs of food, without being exploited by wealthy people, during a food stamps crisis. I suspect the USDA can’t regulate club membership discounts, but someone else can research that.