The Role of Food Retailers in the Promotion of Healthful, Low-Cost Products to WIC Recipients

There is a gap in the literature around promotion of healthy and low-cost food options for WIC recipients. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with retailers to explore the challenges and opportunities of promotions to WIC recipients. Retailers reported doing little to no promotions targeted at WIC recipients at the time of interview. The possibility of increased revenue, particularly for fruits and vegetables, presents an area of potential collaboration between public health officials and retailers. The main barriers to increased promotions were restrictions around promotions directly marketed to WIC recipients and concern by retailers and policymakers about potential stigmatization.