How much do you think WalMart makes directly from the Govt (in the form of welfare/EBT cards)???
I bet 10-20% of their business.
Every time a small business burns down in the ‘hood, or goes bankrupt from Covid or the inability to compete (in a small town), WalMart gets more business.
Those are good points.
Food Stamps: Follow the Money Are Corporations Profiting from Hungry Americans?
...Key findings about corporate lobbying on SNAP:
• Powerful food industry lobbying groups teamed up to oppose health-oriented improvements to SNAP
• The food industry also joined forces with anti-hunger groups to lobby against SNAP improvements
• Companies such as Cargill, PepsiCo, and Kroger lobbied Congress on SNAP, while also donating money to America’s top anti-hunger organizations
• At least nine states have proposed bills to make health-oriented improvements to SNAP, but none have passed, in part due to opposition from the food industry
• Coca-Cola, the Corn Refiners of America, and Kraft Foods all lobbied against a Florida bill that aimed to disallow SNAP purchases for soda and junk foodKey findings about how much money retailers gain from SNAP:
• Although such data is readily available, neither USDA nor the states make public how much money individual retailers make from SNAP EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• Congress does not require data collection on SNAP product purchases, despite such data being critical to effective evaluation
• USDA told a journalist in Massachusetts he was not allowed to make public data on retailer redemptions from SNAP—after he received the data
• In one year, nine Walmart Supercenters in Massachusetts together received more than $33 million in SNAP dollars—over four times the SNAP money spent at farmers markets nationwide
• In two years, Walmart received about half of the one billion dollars in SNAP expenditures in Oklahoma • One Walmart Supercenter in Tulsa, Oklahoma received $15.2 million while another (also in Tulsa) took in close to $9 million in SNAP spending.
Key findings about how much money banks gain from SNAP:
• USDA does not collect national data on how much money banks make on SNAP • J.P. Morgan Chase has contracts for Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) in half the states, indicating a lack of competition and significant market power
• Contract terms vary widely among states, indicating a lack of efficiency and standards
• In California, a 7-year contract worth $69 million went to Affiliated Computer Services, a subsidiary of Xerox
• In Florida, J.P. Morgan Chase enjoys a 5-year contract worth about $83 million, or $16.7 million a year• In New York, a 7-year deal originally paid J.P. Morgan Chase $112 million for EBT services, and was recently amended to add $14.3 million—an increase of 13%
• States are seeing unexpected increases in costs, while banks are reaping significant windfalls from the economic downturn and increasing SNAP participation...
