Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) authorization of discount variety stores: leveraging the private sector to modestly increase availability of healthy foods.

Background: Many lower-income communities in the United States lack a full-line grocery store. There is evidence that the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) increases the availability of healthy foods in stores. One national discount variety store chain (DVS) that is often located in low-income neighborhoods became an authorized WIC vendor in 8 pilot stores.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate how implementing WIC in DVS pilot stores affected sales of healthy, WIC-eligible foods.

Methods: We used DVS sales data and difference-in-differences regression to evaluate how WIC authorization affected sales of WIC-eligible foods in 8 DVS pilot stores, compared with 8 matched comparison stores.

Results: DVS added 18 new WIC-approved foods to become an authorized vendor. Results indicate that becoming a WIC vendor significantly increased sales of healthy, WIC-eligible foods that DVS carried before authorization. WIC implementation in DVS led to a 31-unit increase in sales of the original WIC foods per week on average (P < 0.01). Lower socioeconomic status, assessed using a summary measure, is associated with increased sales of WIC foods. Yet sales of non-WIC eligible foods (e.g., salty snack foods, candy bars, soda, and processed meats) were not affected by WIC authorization.

Conclusions: Encouraging DVS stores to become WIC-authorized vendors has the potential to modestly increase DVS sales and the availability of healthy foods in low-income neighborhoods. If WIC authorization is financially viable for small-format variety stores, encouraging similar small-format variety stores to become WIC-authorized has the potential to improve food access.