• Bloomberg has a story suggesting that Walmart has one advantage in its ongoing battle with Amazon. Food stamps.
According to the story, "Recently, sky-high food-stamp spending in the U.S. has been like a moat surrounding Walmart that even Amazon can’t traverse. Though Amazon commands a fifth of the U.S. online grocery business, food stamps can’t be redeemed on its website, at least for the time being.
"Nearly 46 million people used food stamps in 2015, near record highs, despite coming down slightly in the past couple of years as some recession-era benefits expired."
According to the story, "Recently, sky-high food-stamp spending in the U.S. has been like a moat surrounding Walmart that even Amazon can’t traverse. Though Amazon commands a fifth of the U.S. online grocery business, food stamps can’t be redeemed on its website, at least for the time being.
"Nearly 46 million people used food stamps in 2015, near record highs, despite coming down slightly in the past couple of years as some recession-era benefits expired."
- KC's View:
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The irony here is that Donald Trump may actually be helpful to Amazon and Jeff Bezos on this issue, since he's decried the increased reliance on food stamps by Americans in places like New Mexico. If Trump gets elected and cuts back on food stamp usage, that would help Amazon (a company's he's already threatened with antitrust actions) and hurt Walmart.
