Perhaps you are contemplating establishing an incentive program for your store to help low-income shoppers add more fresh fruits and vegetables to their diets. SNAP incentive and produce prescription programs offer a great way to become more involved with, and better serve, your community. In some cases, these programs also present an opportunity to increase your produce sales.
But is your store incentive ready? If your store was contacted about participating in a nutrition incentive program, wouldn’t you like to be ready to quickly start providing free fresh fruits and vegetables to those in need and be reimbursed for what you give away?
Having your store incentive ready may help your store be at the front of the line when a non-profit or government agency in your area is seeking retailers to participate in a SNAP incentive program.
You may be thinking, “Aren’t all POS systems already incentive-ready?” The fact is, not all POS systems can conduct efficient and accurate electronic incentive transactions without cashiers having to make critical decisions regarding shopper eligibility, item eligibility, and issuance and redemption, and sometimes making costly mistakes.
If you would like to learn more about the challenges that must be tackled from the POS standpoint, please visit our POS Challenges Resource page.
The costs to becoming incentive-ready can vary greatly. Some retailers have had little to no expense adding the capability to their POS system, while some stores have made a substantial investment in adding SNAP incentive transactions. Below are a few basic characteristics that might impact the cost of creating an accurate and efficient incentive transaction on the POS system.
Retailers across the United States use a variety of POS Systems. In this relatively young field, the NGAF TA Center has worked to understand the POS scope and what options exist in a myriad of functioning systems and technologies.
If you would like to learn more about the systems we have encountered, their capabilities and the known options available, please visit our POS Capabilities page.
The funding cycle and process can seem complicated. Grocers must understand how the process works for grantees (the non-profit organizations and government agencies eligible for GusNIP grants) and identify a suitable grantee to work with. If the necessary steps are taken, a partnership can be formed in as little as a few weeks.
If you would like to learn more about the funding cycle and how to embrace the process, please visit our Working with Grantees Page.
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