Grocery sales follow a predictable pattern at the Pioneer Supermarket on Willis Avenue in Mott Haven. While they tick along steadily most weeks, manager Marisol Veras says receipts drop 30% toward the end of each month — right around when shoppers run out of food stamps.
“The day you say there’s no food stamps, nothing will get sold,” Veras said in Spanish. She said if 100 customers walk into her store, 85 of them will pay with benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Now, two major disruptions to the program will upend how New Yorkers on SNAP eat and shop, having a devastating domino effect on grocery stores, particularly those in low-income neighborhoods, grocers and policy experts said…