It’s not a secret that your average grocery-store item is more expensive today than it was a year ago. That’s not the case for Partake Foods, a vegan, allergy-friendly snack brand.

Partake’s retail shelf price hasn’t changed in the past year, founder and CEO Denise Woodard told Retail Brew, because the company’s operations department secured annual contracts for key ingredients.

• Partake has felt price increases across smaller secondary and tertiary ingredients.
• Woodard told us the brand’s R&D and innovation team made adjustments to formulas as a means to maintain margins. Woodard declined to disclose where those margins fall, but said it’s a figure that the company feels “good about.”

Partake, founded in 2016, has seen 100% YoY growth since 2020, although Woodard declined to disclose specific figures. The brand has secured $7.5 million in funding, and finds itself in more than 9,000 stores, including Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Target.

Looking ahead: Beth Hanson, VP of retail sales, said the company works closely with its inventory analysts and category managers at retailers to understand what their needs are. As the business has scaled, Partake has implemented a sales and operations planning process to understand what they are forecasting and what ingredients to order.

Here is where Partake goes next.—KM

Of the 21+ million US households that receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, only 3 million of them bought groceries online in May 2022, up from 35,000 in March 2020.

The number has gradually risen since the first grocers began accepting Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) SNAP payments online in 2019, supported by the USDA Food and Nutrition (FNS) SNAP Online Purchasing Pilot. But there’s more ground to cover: About 250,000 retail locations accept these benefits in physical stores, yet still only a small percentage do online.

Here are the latest movements to expand access:

In the cart: Late last month, Instacart announced consumers in 10 more states are able to buy groceries on its platform using SNAP EBT through Albertsons and Sprouts. Its Carrot Payments offering now allows these payments across 49 states and Washington, DC. (The lone holdout is Alaska, which has yet to approve SNAP EBT online payments.)

• Instacart said it supports these payments across 60+ retail banners, including Meijer, Price Chopper/Market 32, and Tops Friendly Markets.

“This is a massive milestone for both SNAP EBT customers and the grocery industry at large. Until now, accepting EBT SNAP online was a difficult technical undertaking that only the largest US retailers were able to build into their ecommerce offering,” Sarah Mastrorocco, VP & GM of Access to Food & Nutrition at Instacart, told Retail Brew. “We believe that grocery e-commerce should not be a luxury.”

• Mastrorocco said Instacart takes the “burden off retailers” by working with them on the FNS approval process and integration with payment processors.

Access to SNAP online grocery shopping continues to grow.—EC

Today’s top retail reads.

Charged up: When a viral Twitter post questioned the durability of a bag made by Telfar—whose iconic totes came to be known as the “Bushwick Birkin”—social media users had a lot to say. (Business of Fashion)

New habits: While some shoppers are purchasing items ahead of time, anticipating further price hikes, others are spending more on sporting goods, exemplifying some of the many consumer behavioral shifts to have come about this year. (Modern Retail)

Less is more: Zero-waste stores that sell everything from reusable cutlery to compostable dental floss are gaining steam across the US as customers look to become more sustainable. (Bloomberg)

Learn: Connect with other leaders and dive into the tactics of leadership including hiring, delegating, strategy, and execution with the Brew’s Leadership Accelerator, starting this September.

Consumers are likely to spend more than ever in 2022. Insider Intelligence’s team of analysts share 3 of the biggest trends in the retail industry that every commerce professional should know.

At the mall, it’s where band tees are the only tees. In Retail Brew, it’s where we invite readers to weigh in on a trending retail topic.

Conventional wisdom says buying groceries is cheaper than eating out, but we are living in unprecedented times. Prices at grocery stores and restaurants increased 13.1% and 7.6% YoY in July, respectively—the largest inflationary gap in roughly 50 years.

• Since March, consumers’ grocery costs have spiked 10% or more on an annual basis—the biggest increase since 1981.

As the WSJ notes, fast-food and chain-restaurant executives are making the case to investors that more consumers might opt to eat out as opposed to spending $$$ on homemade crudités.

“We need to be delivering great food and great service and great pricing even in a tough environment,” José Cil, CEO of Burger King owner Restaurant Brands International, said in a recent earnings call.

Soaring food prices still affect restaurants. Flour and eggs rose 22% and 38% in the last year, respectively. And grocers like Ahold Delhaize, which owns chains like Hannaford and Stop & Shop, are offering more prepared meals as an alternative to dining.

Our question to you: How have rising prices in supermarkets affected your dining habits?

Circling back: Last week, we asked for your thoughts on hard seltzer since the category appears to be slowing in growth.

• In the year ending on May 22, 2021, seltzer sales were up 80%, per NielsenIQ.
• But Boston Beer, which makes Truly Hard Seltzer, saw sales drop 17% in Q2 of 2022.

Almost 44% of you said you like hard seltzer and are buying the same (or more) as you did before. A hair under a third (32.8) said you like hard seltzer but are indeed buying less. About 17% either don’t like hard seltzer or have never tried it, while 6.2% like it but have stopped purchasing it entirely.

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• Rising costs are driving beauty consumers to trade down with private labels
• Tools of the trade: How escalators helped retail move up
• Carhartt dishes on its innovation, store strategies