West Virginia retailers had to make a range of changes to implement West Virginia’s waiver preventing benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program from being used to buy drinks with sugar and artificial flavorings.
Now they have been making changes to back out of the ban.
Last month, Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia struck down federal agriculture department waivers that allowed several states to ban SNAP recipients from using food stamps to buy soda, candy and other items considered unhealthy.
Jackson in a 68-page decision ruled that the agency exceeded its legal authority by approving the state restrictions without congressional approval. The judge’s order specifically blocked the policies in the five states that had actively rolled out the bans: Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture followed up last week with an advisory: to retailers: “You must stop implementing the ban.”
“When the USDA sent the notice out last Thursday that our retailers were told they have to start selling those products again, they immediately started working on that process. And probably a lot of them were up and running by the weekend,” said Traci Nelson, executive director of the West Virginia Oil Marketers and Grocers Association.
Under the state’s waiver application, the drinks meant to be removed from eligibility for purchase through SNAP included regular soda, diet soda and zero sugar/calorie soda.
“It was a little confusing if it had any kind of sweetener or some energy drinks were accepted, some weren’t,” Nelson said on MetroNews Midday.
“It was a very confusing time, and and that does make it difficult for the retailers, for their for their employees on the front lines because, as you can imagine, some customers were pretty upset when they go to buy these items and they couldn’t. So it’s been a wild ride so far.”
Retailers had to update their point-of-sale systems and train staff to comply with the new rules. West Virginia’s waiver request had acknowledged the potential cost to institute the changes to be be passed along to the state’s 2,118 SNAP retailers.
Larger retailers with sophisticated systems could update quickly, while smaller independents faced significant time and resource challenges.
“The technology differs depending on the size of the retailer, and implementing these changes required significant investment of time and resources throughout our industry. Larger retailers typically have more sophisticated point of sale systems and centralized databases, and they have corporate IT teams who can update product eligibility and that kind of thing, and that makes it easier,” Nelson said.
“Whereas independent, smaller independents of smaller retailers also have more basic systems and menu file and point of sale vendors and that kind of thing. Or sometimes it’s the owner having to do all that himself.”
Merchants have had to make adjustments coming and going, Nelson said. Nelson emphasized the need for patience as retailers adapt.
“Retailers don’t make SNAP policy; we implement SNAP policy, and our job is to make sure the rules we’re given are applied accurately so customers have a smooth experience at the checkout,” Nelson said.
“We value all of our customers, including SNAP customers. So, if you’ll just give us a little bit of time, we’ll get everything the way it’s supposed to be. And we know it’s frustrating. It’s been frustrating for us, but we’re all working together to make this as smooth as possible.”