from Hacker News

Uber Eats will start accepting food stamps for grocery delivery in 2024

by mwexler on 9/21/23, 12:19 PM with 137 comments

• by SkipperCat on 9/21/23, 12:41 PM

  Although my first reaction was "ugh...", this kind of makes sense. There's probably a lot of people on SNAP benefits who have family commitments and time constraints where they need someone to deliver food. Just because your on SNAP doesn't mean you should be a 2nd class citizen.

  Of course, those who hate any type of government aid will have a field day with this. Such is political discourse today.

• by runako on 9/21/23, 12:54 PM

  There are a lot of comments about Uber's markups etc. The accurate comparison is not to Walmart or other large grocer. Often those do not serve urban or rural communities well, primarily due to inaccessibility to the poor. (Think about how many communities live outside of walking distance or off transit from a real grocery store.)

  The compare to consider is the markup and selection at e.g. a gas station or convenience store, where people increasingly buy food. Those places are known for high prices and low value. It's entirely possible that ordering via Uber Eats/Instacart is a better deal for folks on food aid. And selection is certainly better, relevant to the set of folks who like to shame poor people for the food they eat.

• by ceejayoz on 9/21/23, 12:39 PM

  Probably good for folks in food deserts and no car, but their markups will eat severely into family food budgets I suspect.

• by ghaff on 9/21/23, 12:46 PM

  One question I don’t see explicitly mentioned in the article is what’s covered. Eligible food items are presumably covered but what about delivery fees?

• by leereeves on 9/21/23, 12:39 PM

  The obvious question: How much will the markup/fee be?

  If it's affordable this could change the lives of people without cars, but I fear it will be expensive, because UberEats currently is, and because Uber generally seems more interested in making a profit than in providing a public service.

• by bryanrasmussen on 9/22/23, 6:53 AM

  for everybody commenting - it's obvious that given the restrictions of food stamps you cannot use them to pay for delivery, you can however use them to pay for the food that was delivered.

  health benefits can be used for delivery.

  this is also made reasonably clear in the article (could have been better)

  Or hey, some cash you have around.

  on edit: for people who are technical the interest here is almost mainly huh, yeah they separate out the invoicing of the food from the delivery and you pay for the delivery with the health benefits if you have them and you pay for the food with the stamps if you have them.

• by KMnO4 on 9/21/23, 12:39 PM

  Why would someone on food stamps want to pay $16 in fees and tip?

• by woodruffw on 9/21/23, 12:48 PM

  Is anybody familiar with Uber Eats and willing to explain some relevant details? For example, is Uber setting the grocery prices here, or are the stores setting the prices?

  It doesn’t seem unreasonable to allow people to use their food benefits however they want, so long as Uber is not extracting additional rent from the USG by hiking grocery prices through their platform.

• by dark-star on 9/21/23, 12:47 PM

  Food Stamps? WTF, I thought those things only existed during/after the World Wars. TIL that they're still a thing apparently

• by swader999 on 9/21/23, 12:57 PM

  Fudge rounds right to the door!