SNAP/EBT store visit: how to prepare your store

On this page

1. Two kinds of visits
2. Your stock, every day
3. Your register and pricebook
4. Your staff
5. Your paperwork
6. On the day of a visit
7. A quick checklist

If your store accepts SNAP benefits, it’s authorized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, usually called FNS. As part of authorization, reauthorization or a compliance review, FNS may send someone to look at your store, and the visit may not be announced ahead of time.

This article is a general checklist, not legal advice. SNAP rules come from FNS and are carried out with your state’s SNAP agency, and they change from time to time. Check the FNS website at fns.usda.gov and your state agency for the requirements that apply to your store today.

Two kinds of visits

Store reviews. A reviewer checks that your store matches what FNS has on file: the location, the business name, the hours and the food you stock. They may photograph the outside and inside of the store, including shelves and coolers.

Undercover compliance checks. FNS investigators may shop your store like any other customer, without saying who they are, to see whether staff follow SNAP rules at the register. You won’t know when it happens. That’s why the way your store runs on an ordinary weeknight matters more than anything you do on the day of a visit.

Your stock, every day

FNS sets stocking requirements for staple foods in four categories:

• Vegetables or fruits
• Dairy products
• Meat, poultry or fish
• Breads or cereals

The rules set a minimum variety in each category and require perishable items in some of them. Some stores qualify through their sales instead. The exact numbers have changed over the years, so read the current requirements on the FNS website rather than relying on what someone told you when you first applied.

A few practical points:

• The stock requirement applies every day you’re open, not only on the day someone visits.
• Keep the variety on the sales floor, priced and in date, where a reviewer can see it.
• Accessory foods such as soft drinks, candy, coffee, condiments and spices don’t count toward staple stock.
• Rotate perishables and pull expired product. It doesn’t help you, and it looks bad in photos.

Your register and pricebook

Your register works out which items count toward the SNAP total from the settings in your pricebook. If those settings are wrong, cashiers can break the rules without knowing it.

Under the federal rules, SNAP can buy food for the household to prepare and eat at home, including snack foods and non-alcoholic drinks. It can’t buy:

• Beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes or tobacco
• Vitamins, medicines and supplements
• Live animals, with a few exceptions such as shellfish
• Foods that are hot at the point of sale
• Non-food items such as pet food, cleaning supplies, paper products, hygiene items and cosmetics

A rule of thumb for drinks: an energy drink with a Nutrition Facts label is treated as food, while one with a Supplement Facts label is treated as a supplement and isn’t eligible.

Some states have received USDA approval to restrict items such as soft drinks or candy, and the details and start dates differ from state to state and can change. Ask your state agency what applies to your store, and update your settings before any start date.

Then check the register itself:

1. Confirm the SNAP setting on every department.
2. Look for items that don’t fit their department: a supplement drink among the sodas, pet food in grocery, a hot item set up as cold food.
3. Check new items as they’re added, since they often take on the department’s setting automatically.
4. Read a few real SNAP receipts. SNAP customers must pay the same prices as everyone else, eligible items paid with SNAP shouldn’t be charged sales tax, and there shouldn’t be any fee for paying with SNAP.

Your staff

Every clerk on every shift should know the basics:

• SNAP pays only for eligible food. Ineligible items in the same sale are paid for another way.
• Never give cash for SNAP benefits, in any amount, for any reason.
• Never accept SNAP to pay down a tab, a credit account or an earlier purchase.
• Never hold on to a customer’s EBT card or PIN, even for a regular.
• Never ring an ineligible item as something else.
• Know what your EBT processor says to do when the card terminal or the network is down.
• When in doubt, call the manager before finishing the sale.

Train new hires before their first shift on the register, refresh everyone regularly and keep a signed record of who was trained, when and on what. FNS publishes training materials for retailers and their staff that you can use.

Your paperwork

Keep these where the manager on duty can find them:

• Your SNAP permit and FNS number
• Copies of the business documents you applied with, so you can confirm details if asked
• Supplier invoices for food purchases, organized by date, since reviewers may ask for records
• A note of every change you’ve reported to FNS

Keep your information current. A SNAP permit is good only for the owners and the location on record with FNS. If you sell the store, the new owner has to apply, and a new location needs its own authorization. Follow FNS instructions for reporting other changes, such as new hours or a new contact person.

On the day of a visit

• Be polite and let the reviewer do their work. It’s reasonable to ask for identification.
• Answer questions about the business honestly. If you don’t know something, say so and offer to follow up.
• Don’t rearrange the store for the visit. The stock should already be there.
• Afterward, write down the date, the time, the reviewer’s name and what they looked at.

If you get a letter from FNS after any visit, read it the day it arrives, note any deadline and respond on time. If it raises a problem, consider getting professional advice before you answer.

A quick checklist

• Staple food variety on the sales floor, priced and in date
• Perishables cold and in date
• SNAP settings checked by department and by item, including any state restrictions
• Staff trained, with signed records
• SNAP permit and business documents easy to find
• Food invoices organized by date
• Your information with FNS up to date

The rules belong to USDA FNS and your state agency. Use this list to get organized, then check it against their current guidance.