Tops, Giant Food Expand Online EBT Payment for SNAP Customers

Tops Friendly Markets now offers its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)-eligible customers the ease of shopping online with Instacart. SNAP shoppers can pay for their same-day pickup or delivery orders with their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) debit card while shopping online at Tops that partner with Instacart in New York State.

The Williamsville, N.Y.-based grocer offers Instacart services at 126 convenient New York locations. In the coming weeks, Tops will also be expanding these services at its Pennsylvania and Vermont locations that partner with Instacart for same-day delivery and pickup as well.

“Tops Friendly Markets is excited to pilot these services in our largest market of Instacart stores,” said Jill Sirica, manager of digital marketing for Tops, in a statement. “At the core of Tops mission is combating food insecurity, and this will help bridge that gap of helping families gain accessibility to healthy and affordable food, something we have strived for since we began our partnership with Instacart. We are truly excited to see it come to fruition.”

“Providing people access to the food they love is at the core of Instacart’s mission. We’re proud to partner with Tops Friendly Markets to provide more families with a convenient and accessible way to get their fresh food and pantry staples,” said David Healy, retail partnerships for Instacart. “Expanding EBT SNAP to reach same-day online grocery delivery and pickup is important to help people access the food they need, and we look forward to expanding this payment integration to even more retailers across New York, Vermont and Pennsylvania.”

For shoppers to use their EBT card at a Tops location online, a credit or debit card must be linked to their Instacart account to cover nonfood fees, such as bottle deposits in some states, taxes, delivery tips and any other non-EBT SNAP-eligible items per federal SNAP guidelines. Once items are added to their cart, customers will be able to select how much of their benefits they would like to allocate to the order.

Orders for delivery and pickup can be placed by customers for receipt in as fast as an hour or scheduled several days in advance.

To help subsidize costs for EBT SNAP participants, Instacart will waive delivery or pickup fees through Sept. 16 on up to the first three EBT SNAP orders for each customer with a valid EBT card associated with their Instacart account.

Similarly, Giant Food of Landover, Md., recently announced that SNAP shoppers paying with an EBT can place online orders for Giant Pickup and Giant Delivers throughout Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Delaware.

The new user-friendly experience offers customers the option to add their EBT card to their account on Giantfood.com and begin shopping using their SNAP funds. While browsing online aisles, SNAP customers can sort products to show eligible items and a “SNAP Eligible” label will appear within the product details. At checkout, customers can select the “Apply SNAP Benefits” option and then select the amount to charge to their EBT card, allowing personalized budgeting throughout the month.

“Convenience and value are of great importance at Giant and as online grocery demand continues at an all-time high, we are excited to make shopping more accessible for our SNAP customers on Giantfood.com,” said Gregg Dorazio, director of e-commerce for Giant Food, in a release. “The rollout of online EBT payments further supports our mission to increase access to healthy food and support hunger relief efforts in the communities we serve, especially as food insecurity issues have been further exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic.”

SNAP customers at Giant Food can use their benefits to purchase eligible food and grocery items for online orders but will need to use an alternative preferred credit/debit card or checking account for any items not eligible for SNAP as well as taxes, pickup/delivery fees or driver tips.

Online Giant Pickup orders are subject to a $2.95 fee and Giant Delivers orders are subject to a delivery fee between $7.95 and $9.95. As always, customers with SNAP benefits are also able to use their EBT card for eligible food and grocery purchases in-store.

In addition, customers that prefer Instacart rush delivery may also use their SNAP benefits to purchase grocery items from Giant at instacart.com/giant.