As grocery prices remain stubbornly high, major retailers are stepping in to ease the burden for some shoppers, but not all.
Walmart, Amazon and Kroger have rolled out or expanded programs that offer special discounts, delivery perks and membership savings for customers who use government assistance programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT).
Walmart’s new Walmart+ Assist membership cuts its annual subscription cost in half, from $98 to $49, for shoppers enrolled in government aid programs like SNAP, Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and Medicaid.
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Amazon offers similar breaks, with Prime Access, a discounted Prime membership for qualifying low-income customers with an integrated EBT payment platform.
Meanwhile, Kroger has expanded its ability to process SNAP payments for delivery and pickup orders, making it easier for government-aided shoppers to buy groceries online.
These efforts are framed as part of a broader corporate push to improve "access and affordability."
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Yet they’re also deepening a growing divide at the checkout line. Families earning just above the government threshold for SNAP are left paying full price for food, gas and delivery, despite facing the same inflationary pressures.
Still, retailers aren’t creating that divide, they’re responding to it. The gap stems largely from how federal aid programs are structured, with strict income cutoffs that determine who qualifies for help and who doesn’t.
Companies like Walmart, Amazon and Kroger are tailoring their discounts around those existing policies, not setting them.
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The trend exposes a long-standing weakness in the nation’s safety net: government benefits and the discounts that come with them are often cut off abruptly, leaving millions of working families just above the threshold with little relief.
FOX Business reached out to Walmart, Amazon and Kroger for comment.
That tension is unfolding as the government shutdown stretches into its fifth week, with no signs of either side backing down over funding priorities, a standoff that threatens to disrupt federal programs, including food assistance.
Unless Congress acts, SNAP funding will halt on Nov. 1, endangering a program that provides essential food aid to more than 40 million Americans and underpins tens of billions in annual grocery spending.
