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You would think it'd be a no brainer for a store like Aldi — one of the most affordable grocery chains in America and known for their family-focused branding — to accept WIC benefits. But surprisingly, it's one of the few major retailers that doesn't. The reasons lie in a complex mix of strict government regulations and their business model that, ironically, is too streamlined to meet WIC requirements.

If you're not familiar, WIC — short for Women, Infants, and Children — its a federal assistance program (administered by states with federal funding) that provides low-income pregnant/postpartum women, infants, and children up to age 5 with access to nutritious foods, formula, nutrition education, and other health resources. For grocery stores to become WIC-approved, they have to meet state-specific requirements, including stocking a variety of approved food items such as infant formula, produce, cereal, dairy, eggs, and beans, from specific regularly-found brands (like Similac, Cheerios, Dannon) and in certain package sizes (i.e. 12.4 ounce cans of formula, 36 ounces breakfast cereal, 1 quart of milk). Stores are also required to meet a minimum stock inventory of these approved items at all times.

Since Aldi's business model focuses on a limited selection of mostly private-label products, meeting state product specifications, which also varies state by state, would be challenging. Even if Aldi were to add the WIC-approved items to its inventory, this could interfere with the chain's intentionally curated, no-frills (not even music) shopping experience. Additionally, all Aldi locations would need to overhaul their POS (point-of-sale) systems to accurately identify and process WIC-eligible items — a costly infrastructure investment that doesn't align with the company's lean operational strategies.

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While Aldi does currently accept SNAP EBT cards at all of its U.S. store locations, it has not stated any future plans of implementing WIC-approved items in its stores. Aldi has previously explored ways to make the program work within their stores' structure before, but due to the majority of their products being Aldi brands with some Aldi dupes that are better than name brand, including their own premium-quality formula "Little Journey," it doesn't meet current WIC guidelines, often including national brands. However, if WIC program guidelines changed to allow more store brands or fewer specific brand requirements, then ALDI might be better positioned to participate.

In the meantime, you can find 46,000 other grocery stores across all 50 states and 34 Tribal Indian Organizations that accept WIC benefits. Many of these locations are nationwide chains like Walmart, Kroger, CVS,  Wegmans, Target, and Meijer. In some states, WIC is not guaranteed to list certain stores as WIC-approved. Most state and local WIC programs offer vendor lists or maps to assist recipients in finding approved stores and depending on your state. You can also download the state WIC app, the WICShopper app, or use a third-party WIC store locator available online, where you can select your state and find grocery stores and pharmacies that accept WIC.