Dive Brief:

• Instacart announced Wednesday it is expanding SNAP online purchasing with Kroger. 
• The grocer is extending its acceptance of the payment method at all Kroger, Ralphs, Foods Co, Fry’s, Jay C, Pay Less and Food 4 Less stores on the third-party provider.
• The expansion builds on Kroger’s recent efforts to broaden the availability of SNAP online purchasing at its banners. 

Dive Insight:

With this announcement, online SNAP acceptance will soon become available from more than 1,600 of Kroger’s locations on Instacart. 

SNAP recipients can now use their benefits to shop from Ralphs, Foods Co, Jay C, Pay Less and Fry’s on Instacart. On Friday, Food 4 Less consumers in California, Illinois and Indiana will be able to use their SNAP benefits to shop online from Instacart.

The expansion comes as the winter holiday season starts, with Instacart noting the expansion is “helping more families overcome transportation barriers and maximize their food budgets using our platform,” Sarah Mastrorocco, vice president and general manager of health at Instacart, said in a blog post.  

In late October, Kroger announced that it had started accepting EBT cards for pickup and delivery orders across all of its stores following a test during the pandemic.

In April, Kroger Delivery said it had started accepting EBT payment for all pickup or delivery online orders through the service, which is a partnership between the grocer and automated fulfillment company Ocado. 

The Kroger announcement marks the latest SNAP online purchasing expansion for Instacart, which helped pioneer the acceptance of EBT cards online for SNAP participants. 

With the Kroger expansion, Instacart now accepts SNAP from more than 130 retail banners and more than 12,000 stores in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., reaching almost 95% of the 42 million people enrolled in the benefits program, the company said in an email. 

At the end of last year, Instacart launched a discounted version of its Instacart+ membership to SNAP participants. 

“We want to give SNAP recipients the ability to choose from a variety of retailers based on what works best for their families, offering greater flexibility, convenience and the dignity of choice,” Mastrorocco said in the Wednesday announcement.