Walmart takes more than 25% of all SNAP dollars

Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits spend an average of $740 on groceries every month, and Walmart captures over a quarter of those government-backed dollars, according to a Numerator study.

The data analytics firm’s SNAP Shopper Scorecard, released on Tuesday, shows that SNAP beneficiaries work to stretch those benefits by shopping at discount grocers and convenience stores like 7-Eleven.

Over the 12-month period ending July 31, Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart captured 25.8% of SNAP shoppers’ grocery dollars. A whopping 94.3% of SNAP recipients said they shopped at Walmart.

SNAP recipients are more likely to split their monthly grocery spending among multiple stores (6.4 on average) relative to non-SNAP shoppers (5.9). More than three-quarters of SNAP recipients (78.4%) shop at Dollar Tree, while 60.5% shop at Target, 51.8% at Amazon, and 49.9% at Kroger. 

Walmart by far took the lion’s share of SNAP dollars, followed by Kroger, which captured less than half of Walmart’s take at 9.1%. 

Albertsons followed Kroger at 6.5%, while Costco came in fourth place at 6.2%. Sam’s Club took 3.8% of SNAP spend, Ahold Delhaize 3.4%, 7-Eleven 2.9%, both Dollar General and Publix 2.6% each, and Aldi came in 10th place at 2.1%.

Dollar Tree, H-E-B, Winco Foods, and Wakefern captured less than 2% of SNAP spend, while Amazon, BJ’s, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Meijer each captured 1% or less. 

“Although SNAP shoppers are a cash-strapped group, they also are twice as likely to come from larger households, meaning they spend more overall — particularly on groceries — than non-SNAP shoppers. They also dedicate a larger portion of their budgets to groceries and make smaller, more frequent shopping trips in general,” according to the report.