"The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has sent notices to retailers alerting them that they can't offer special discounts to customers affected by the lapse in funding. "You must offer eligible foods at the same prices and on the same terms and conditions to SNAP-EBT customers as other customers, except that sales tax cannot be charged on SNAP purchases," the notice reads. "You cannot treat SNAP-EBT customers differently than any other customers.""
""The USDA appears to be invoking the "equal treatment rule" in an unprecedented way: The rule was intended to ensure that retailers couldn't discriminate against SNAP recipients by charging them more for eligible items. Now, the USDA wants to ensure that grocery stores don't charge these customers less for eligible items. What's also unusual is that grocery stores, at their discretion, regularly offer discounts to customers for a variety of reasons - including designated discount days for seniors.""
Retailers received USDA notices prohibiting special discounts to customers affected by halved SNAP benefits, even as restaurants, food banks, nonprofits, and other groups offered help to 41 million Americans. The USDA cited the equal treatment rule, instructing stores to sell eligible foods at the same prices and terms to SNAP-EBT customers as to other customers and forbidding differential pricing aside from sales tax exemptions. The notices were issued despite a government shutdown. The Food and Nutrition Service monitors potential violations and may take administrative action against stores found to contravene SNAP rules, though specific penalties remain unclear.
Read at Fast Company
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