Reply #55: the "store brand" restriction is probably for WIC, not food stamps

[Bill McBlueState]

We were on both programs for about a year after my daughter was born, when I was working on my PhD and my wife was home with the baby. Policies probably vary by state, but we were in Massachusetts at the time.

For food stamps, you would just check out as usual, pay first with your food stamp card, and anything ineligible would show up in a remaining balance. You could pay for that stuff with cash or whatever.

For WIC, you had to separate out the specific things WIC would cover and run those as a separate order paid for entirely with WIC vouchers. For WIC, but not food stamps, you had to get the cheapest brand available, but it was up to the cashier to enforce that.