Online Grocery Shopping by NYC Public Housing Residents Using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Benefits: A Service Ecosystems Perspective

Abstract

This paper examines adoption of online grocery shopping, and potential cost and time savings compared to brick and mortar food retailers, by New York City public housing residents using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. A mixed methods action research project involving the co-creation of an online shopping club, the Farragut Food Club (FFC), recruited 300 members who registered to shop online using SNAP, and received waivers on delivery minimums and provided technical assistance and centralized food delivery. We conducted a survey (n = 206) and focus groups to understand shopping practices; FFC members collected receipts of groceries over two weeks before and after the pilot to measure foods purchased, stores patronized, and prices. We interviewed FFC members to elicit experiences with the pilot, and estimated cost differences between products purchased in brick and mortar stores and equivalent products online, and transportation time and cost differences. Online shopping represented a small (2.4%) percentage of grocery spending. Unit prices for products purchased on Amazon ($0.28) were significantly higher than for equivalent products purchased in brick and mortar stores ($0.23) (p < 0.001.) Compatibility with existing routines, low relative advantage, and cost of online products limited the adoption of online shopping among SNAP users.

“Now I Feel a Little Bit More Secure”: The Impact of SNAP Enrollment on Older Adult SSI Recipients

“…SNAP participants with mobility impairments are particularly vulnerable to loss of purchasing power in SNAP benefits [30]. Our findings support a growing number of pilot and COVID-related programs allowing SNAP redemption online, which can expand access to affordable grocery stores while reducing physical access barriers [31,32]. These findings help explain the broader study's quantitative results which demonstrated that participants did not experience a significant change in their dietary intake or other health outcomes after the policy change, although they were more likely to report improved general health status and less cost-related medication nonadherence at follow up compared to baseline.…”

Online Pilot Grocery Intervention among Rural and Urban Residents Aimed to Improve Purchasing Habits

“…Our results are positioned within a limited but growing research field of online grocery shopping interventions [ 5 , 6 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 28 , 34 ]. To date, a few interventions have revealed how online shopping has helped to increase the purchase of high fiber foods [ 9 ] and decrease the purchase of less healthy food items that are high in saturated fats [ 12 ].…”

“…However, as mentioned previously, most of these studies tend to be simulation models, conducted pre-COVID-19 and the SNAP online pilot, and have less generalizability to actual customers’ shopping behaviors. Thus, our study built upon the previous research [ 5 , 10 , 15 , 28 , 34 ] to establish the content of the intervention to help improve future policy and public health practice applications aimed at assisting customers with online shopping. Although the data for all of the food purchases made during this study were not collected, these findings are encouraging when examining innovative strategies to improve food access, nutritional intake, and ultimately the health status of rural and SNAP populations, who generally have disproportional high rates of diet-related chronic diseases, in part due to nutritional inadequacy.…”

“…The survey collected information on demographics (age, race/ethnicity), general shopping habits, and online shopping preferences and barriers. The online shopping preferences and barriers questions were used from previous research [ 15 , 23 , 28 ] as well as key collaboration across study authors.…”

Applying a Multi-Dimensional Digital Food and Nutrition Literacy Model to Inform Research and Policies to Enable Adults in the U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to Make Healthy Purchases in the Online Food Retail Ecosystem

“…While the report found that many SNAP participants are purchasing food online, many researchers have also identified barriers to SNAP uptake [92]. Barriers range from a lack of trust in using digital platforms and limited control over the online shopping process to grocery costs and product quality [26,93]. Additional research is needed to understand the barriers that SNAP participants experience when purchasing groceries online, and how to overcome them to improve SNAP Online Purchasing Pilot program participation.…”