Changes in Grocery Shopping Behavior among Low-Income Households during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Online Purchasing Pilot (OPP) authorized the use of SNAP benefits online in Maryland in May 2020. We assessed shopping behavior and intentions associated with uptake and intended future use of online grocery shopping during and after COVID-19 among SNAP-eligible households.

Design: In this mixed-methods study, participants completed a survey on online grocery shopping, and a purposefully sampled subset participated in focus groups or in-depth interviews between November 2020 and March 2021.

Setting: Predominantly urban households in Maryland.

Participants: Primary shoppers of SNAP-eligible households with young children (n=310).

Results: Most participants reported first shopping for groceries online after the OPP was implemented (57%). Families who purchased groceries in-store less frequently were less likely to report ever buying groceries online (RR: 0.66, 95% CI: 0.46, 0.93) compared to weekly grocery shoppers. Shoppers who intended to purchase more groceries online in the next 6-months were more likely to have online shopping experience, although this differed by timing of online grocery service adoption. Participants reported more negative attitudes toward in-store grocery shopping during the pandemic than prior to its onset, and cited COVID-19 as a motivator for ordering groceries online in focus groups. Most participants who had shopped online planned to continue after the pandemic (79%).

Conclusions: Most participants who shopped online started during the COVID-19 pandemic and considered the pandemic a key motivator. Findings suggest that low-income households will continue to shop online, affirming the need for policies that promote equitable access to healthy food online.