Three grocers take online SNAP payments for Instacart orders

Publix, The Save Mart Companies, and Price Chopper/Market 32 are accepting federal benefit payments for eligible online orders.

The three grocery retailers are partnering with Instacart to accept EBT SNAP digital payment for online grocery delivery and pickup. In all, this expansion will increase EBT SNAP availability by more than 1,500 stores across 15 states.

Instacart, the leading online grocery platform in North America, today announced an expansion of its EBT SNAP payment integration to include three new retailers - Publix, The Save Mart Companies and Price Chopper/Market 32 - for online grocery delivery and pickup. 

EBT SNAP is now available at all Publix locations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The Save Mart Companies - including Save Mart, Lucky California, Lucky, and FoodMaxx banners - has enabled EBT SNAP across California and Nevada, making Save Mart the first Northern California retailer to offer EBT SNAP online. 

Meanwhile, Price Chopper/Market 32 has launched the EBT SNAP payment integration across its New York stores, and will soon expand to locations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Vermont in the coming weeks. 

Once this expansion is complete, Instacart will offer EBT SNAP in more than 4,000 stores across 38 states and Washington D.C. EBT SNAP benefits (popularly known as food stamps) are growing in acceptance as a form of payment for online purchases by an increasing number of grocery retailers. Grocers including Aldi and Food Lion are already partnering with Instacart to accept online SNAP payments for pickup and delivery orders.

Once an Instacart customer profile is created, customers can enter their EBT food card information as a form of payment in their profile. Customers will need a secondary form of payment for non-food items such as taxes, tips and fees per federal SNAP guidelines. Customers can then enter their ZIP code to determine if they are near a participating retailer, and begin shopping and selecting items from retailers' EBT-eligible products. 

After items are added to their cart, customers will be able to select how much of their benefits they would like to allocate to the order. Orders for delivery and pickup can be placed by customers for receipt in as fast as an hour or scheduled several days in advance. 

"Price Chopper/Market 32 is pleased to be amongst the first national grocery retailers equipped to accept EBT SNAP benefits as a form of payment online via Instacart for same-day grocery delivery and pickup," said Blaine Bringhurst, executive VP of merchandising, marketing and store operations at Price Chopper/Market 32. 

"We're committed to continuing to expand EBT SNAP payments for Americans nationwide and are proud to partner with three new retailers -- Publix, The Save Mart Companies and Price Chopper/Market 32 -- on this important initiative," said Nilam Ganenthiran, president of Instacart.