GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — There are numerous stores that advertise in-store windows stating they accept SNAP benefit purchases. So, I went to a large supermarket on the southeast side of my Grand Rapids neighborhood on Tuesday to see the impact the business is having.
The moment you walk into Great Giant Supermarket, it showcases that shoppers can get double the fruits and veggies with their SNAP benefits. Despite the incentives, the owner here says that last week he noticed fewer people shopping the aisles.
“It’s been a little bit on a softer side,” Great Giant Supermarket Owner Avin Yelda said. “We felt that from last week, when the fear came into people. People were just scared of the unknown.”
This supermarket is in the Madison Area neighborhood. Yelda explains that there has always been a grocery store here for decades. It wasn't until 2018 that he and his family stepped in to provide food to their neighbors.
“We have great burgers here, and then we have a full-service counter. Always full, always fresh,” Yelda added.
This supermarket owner’s father started up this business from a liquor store in Detroit.
“As our family got bigger. We tried bigger things and went to supermarkets,” he added.
The family now owns stores on the west and east sides of the state. Yelda tells me nearly one-third of this Madison Avenue location's monthly sales come from shoppers using SNAP benefits. On the other side of the state, it's nearly two-thirds.
As the business watches the reduction in SNAP benefits this month hit the bottom line, Yelda says he's more worried about his customers.
“I don't see how our government having an issue is supposed to let people go hungry because they can't work on their differences. People are supposed to suffer,” Yelda said. “It's just the fear that everybody has, you know, it gets running and everybody just gets scared and tightens up a little bit. The problem is, though you talk about food, it's a necessity. It's not a luxury item.”
I also talked to an employee of a convenience store on the northeast side of Grand Rapids.
He told me that in October, they had roughly $130 in daily sales involving a Bridge card.
The employee said that the price had dropped to about $30 more recently.
