How Grocery Clerks Are At The Center Of The Food Affordability Crisis

Grocery clerks and cashiers are at the heart of the food affordability crisis. Many of their customers can’t afford enough good food or are trading down to lower quality or more processed items. And as essential workers, clerks and cashiers are typically paid far below living wages, especially as food inflation has outpaced real wage growth. Like their customers, essential grocery workers are making difficult choices to feed their families and communities, and many are hungry for the holidays.

Cynthia Hernandez is Customer Service Clerk at Ralphs in South Los Angeles. “The emotional toll is visible and real. I have seen customers become visibly distressed and even break down in tears at the checkout when they realize they cannot afford the food they need.”

Grocery prices have increased by 35% since 2019, while unit volumes are down 5%. Consumers are now buying 13 billion fewer product units compared to 2021, a drop off that may be correlated with the dramatic rise in poverty and food insecurity since 2022. The top 10 most consumed categories, including beef, soft drinks, eggs, milk, salty snacks and coffee, saw an average price increase of 60% since 2019, with a 1.3% decline in unit volume. The price hikes far outpaces the nominal wage growth of 22% in the same period, even for unionized grocery clerks.

Consumer prices continue to inch up, even as inflation has slowed down.

Studies by Deloitte and Wells Fargo indicate that Thanksgiving prices continue to climb, while NIQ data shows 3% grocery price inflation since 2024, driven primarily by beef, eggs, coffee and chocolate. Turkey prices have dropped about 1% year over year, possibly due to less market concentration in previous years, but most seasonal produce is up due to labor market disruptions and climate pressures.

Rank and file grocery workers understand the affordability question as good as anyone. Over 40 million Americans use SNAP, while food insecurity is affecting over 47 million people. The USDA has stopped counting, even as the crisis gets visibly worse, and the department is engaged in a concerted effort to reduce enrollment in SNAP, despite SNAP contributing over $100 billion in annual sales to grocers. SNAP revenue accounts for the majority of sales at many grocers in low income rural and urban communities. Walmart and Kroger are far and away the largest grocers for SNAP recipients.

“When the SNAP benefits stopped, it was an immediate shock to my budget. As a single mother with three children, that assistance is a critical part of my ability to buy groceries each month,” Cynthia Hernandez explained.

SNAP benefits are heavily means tested and typically don’t last more than a couple weeks. Individual benefits are capped out around $187 a month, and family benefits around $354, far below what is costs to eat a healthy and nutrient dense, let alone enjoyable, diet. SNAP is based off what is called a “thrifty” food plan, but austerity has never provided a well-balanced diet.

“The goal is no longer about variety, preference or health; it’s about purchasing enough calories to get by, often sacrificing nutritional value for cost.”

To make ends meet, Cynthia has had to make significant changes. She now relies heavily on store-brand items and essential goods only. Her food purchases are now strictly budget-driven, like buying a low-cost package of chicken to feed her family for a few days.

Private labels sales continue to skyrocket and gain market share at the expense of name brands, and much of the time, quality is comparable. The largest brands in retail are Kirkland and Great Value, the flagship private labels of Costco and Walmart, respectively.

Discounters such as Aldi and Dollar General have made huge grocery market share gains, while Walmart continues to achieve massive same store sales growth and record-setting market share gains, usually at the expense of unionized competitors like Kroger, Albertsons and Ahold-Delhaize, who are closing stores and laying off workers.

Cynthia works in customer service but also does other jobs, including bagging groceries, working the self-checkout, and taking care of go-backs (in store returns). Earlier this month, she was able to see the direct impact of SNAP cuts on her customers every day, witnessing people leaving food at the register because they could no longer afford their full grocery order, customers putting back more expensive cuts of meat for cheaper ones, like chicken, or forgoing a gallon of milk entirely. This is especially common among mothers with young children and elderly shoppers.

“The food insecurity that working families face has lasting effects on all of us.”

This isn’t just affecting individuals but entire families and communities. Cynthia is also supporting her 65-year-old mother, who is a SNAP recipient and also had her benefits cut. When Cynthia’s benefits were restored, they were stretched to cover two households.

A study of Kroger employees in 2022 revealed that over 75% faced food insecurity. While many employees have fought for and won wage gains, costs of living increases eclipsed their victories.

The Trump Administration campaigned victoriously on food prices amid the Biden Administration’s disastrous mishandling of inflation: the ending of pandemic-era relief programs; an aggressive Federal Reserve approach to raising interest rates that drove up borrowing costs for working families; little executive action to stop the price gouging by market leading food companies that generated huge pandemic profits on the backs of consumers; and an ideological aversion to public pricing oversight that could have slowed down price hikes at retail. These all contributed to an enormous backlash on cost of living, bread and butter issues at the ballot box.

Inflation is now rated as the biggest risk to the U.S. economy. Over 90% of U.S. adults are stressed about grocery prices. The CEO of GoFundMe said that people are crowdfunding for groceries. Rising grocery costs are forcing 45% of Virginia families into debt. Market research firm dunnhumby documented “that 18-44 year-olds are at the epicenter of a food and financial insecurity crisis that shows no signs of abating.”

Trump touted Walmart’s cheaper new Thanksgiving basket as proof that prices have come down, overlooking that it contains fewer items and has swapped out name brands for cheaper Great Value knockoffs.

The Trump Administration has done little to reverse the Biden-era economic damage. Labor disruptions in the agricultural sector from immigration raids may eclipse any short term consumer savings from Trump tariff reversals, and climate pressures on many key commodities are only getting worse. Bureaucratic USDA hostility to SNAP benefits is also making things more dicey for recipients. The recent reinstatement of SNAP benefits has not brought relief. For many, it has created panic. Cynthia has seen customers spend hundreds of dollars in a single trip out of fear that the benefits will be suspended again.

“There is a pervasive sense of anxiety in our community. The constant worry is, ‘What if the benefits are withheld again?’ This uncertainty makes it impossible to plan, even for a holiday like Thanksgiving. For many of us this year, Thanksgiving does not feel like a celebration. It feels like a point of stress and a stark reminder of our precarious situation. This should not be like that. Especially for grocery store workers who spend most of our lives surrounded by food yet we struggle to feed our families.”

Juan Carlos Esquivel is a ten year veteran Meat Clerk at Santa Monica Vons. While Juan and his coworkers recently won a hard-fought wage increase, it has been outpaced by the soaring cost of living, which makes it almost impossible to make ends meet.

This is the painful reality that many grocery workers now face: they are the people who help families put food on their tables, yet they struggle to put food on their own.

“Last year, after a medical leave, I needed SNAP benefits to survive. The moment I was back on the job, that help was taken away, even though my financial struggles had only worsened. The stress of not knowing whether we will be able to feed our families feels like a heavy burden and a never ending concern.”

Juan is not the only one. At his store, Juan and three of his coworkers now rely on a weekly trip to a food bank to feed their families. “It is a stark contradiction that we work full-time in a grocery store but cannot afford groceries without charity.” While food banks are a critical link in the food security complex, they provision less than one ninth the amount of food that usually SNAP does.

“This holiday season, forget about lavish meals. We’re more worried about just having something to eat. But it doesn’t have to be like this. Working families should not have to worry about their next meal. We need solutions that ensure a hard day’s work means you can provide for your family.”

Deserai Bartlett is Floral Clerk at Ralphs of Studio City. “For my customers at the Ralphs in Studio City, I create moments of joy in the floral department. But as the main provider for my two children, my own reality is far from a celebration.”

The stress of providing is a heavy weight for Deserai. Like Juan, she works in a store surrounded by food, yet the high cost of rent and groceries means putting food on her own table is a constant challenge.

“It’s really sad to work surrounded by plenty of food, all while wondering how to make sure your children have enough.

“This is more than just a personal hardship; it’s a systemic crisis. It’s a story shared by too many hardworking people. I believe it’s the responsibility of both our employers and our lawmakers to find a solution.

“Everyone who works a full-time job should be able to provide for their family without this fear, and have a real chance to build a better life.”