(Nov 5): American consumers struggling to access food aid payments due to the government shutdown can’t fill their grocery baskets and it’s “painful,” according to the company behind the Stop & Shop and Food Lion grocery stores.
The US government needs to find a resolution to the longest government shutdown on record soon “because it’s painful for the communities that the nutritional support is not there anymore,” Frans Muller, chief executive officer of Ahold Delhaize, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
While Ahold is not seeing any sales slowdown at the moment from issues affecting a programme that provides support to millions of low-income households, it’s watching the situation closely, Muller added, speaking after the Dutch retailer reported a 1.9% US sales increase in constant currencies during the third-quarter.
Ahold Delhaize, which also owns Giant Food and Hannaford stores, generates about 60% of its annual sales in the US.
The Trump administration said on Monday it would comply with a court order to fund food aid benefits for November, but only at 50% of the amount that eligible households normally receive. More than 42 million people in the US rely on support through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme, according to government data.
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