Can you take advantage of WIC prices even if you don't qualify for the program?

If you're not aware, WIC stands for low-income (pregnant or nursing) Women, Infants, and (young) Children. It's a federal food assistance program designed to improve nutrition specifically for this demographic. This is a different program from SNAP (food stamps). SNAP provides a dollar amount for qualifying citizens and legal residents, based on income and not gender or age. 

WIC provides e-coupons (on a registered card) to obtain specific foods in specific amounts. The foods allowed are lower cost but high in nutritional value, covering basics like fresh, frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables, milk, whole grains, breakfast cereal, peanut butter, dried beans, canned fish (tuna), tofu, and baby formula. The shopper selects the amounts of these foods allowed, receives them for free, and the store is reimbursed by the federal government. Most stores use shelf tags to indicate whether or not a food is WIC eligible.

To keep costs for this tax payer-funded program under control, state agencies use various cost containment strategies, such as limiting eligible products to specific container sizes or specific brands. For example, at WinCo today I noticed that one brand and size can of tuna was WIC eligible, while other brands and sizes were not. I compared the unit price on the price tag of the various brands and sizes, and the WIC eligible one was the least expensive per ounce. You would think that the family-size can would be less expensive per ounce than the smaller 5-oz can. But it's the reverse. From the USDA's website, the federal government encourages competitive bidding for authorized foods. While the government doesn't set the prices for each WIC eligible item, it encourages states to limit WIC eligible items to those brands/sizes that are lowest in price. This can influence pricing set by manufacturers on specific brands and sizes of each item.

Okay, so I am obviously not eligible for WIC. So how can WIC help me (or you)?

First of all, the WIC price is the same price for all consumers. There isn't a different price set for WIC recipients vs. ordinary consumers. But the price on WIC products is mostly the best value for nutrition in the above mentioned specific categories.

Some states require grocery stores to use WIC identifying labels on the shelves for eligible products. Other states don't require this, but encourage or allow stores to use state-provided tags to assist WIC shoppers find the right products. In some cases, the WIC tag is a separate shelf tag from the price tag, and in other cases the WIC information is on the shelf price tag. Sometimes it's just a capital "W" on the price tag. 

To be noted, fruits and vegetables are not restricted to size or brand, but to a fixed total dollar amount per month. However, stores may use WIC identifying labels on more common sizes of packages of fruits or vegetables or packages which represent the best value.

Once you figure out how your local stores identify WIC-approved foods, you can use this as a shortcut for finding lowest priced foods in specific categories. Our WinCo keeps the lowest priced (per unit cost) items covered by WIC on green tag (WinCo's "extra savings" products) longer than standard sales. The WIC eligible canned tuna has been on green tag for many months now. And this is the lowest price per ounce can. In the frozen foods, I noticed today that the 16-ounce package of mixed vegetables had the WIC tag, but the 32-ounce package did not. This could have been an oversight by the store, or it could have indicated that this is both the best value (price per ounce for this product) as well as most commonly purchased size. When I compared unit pricing, the 16-ounce was indeed the less expensive option. If I were a WIC shopper, I could use this info to help me get the most produce for my family for the limited dollar amount allowed. As a non-WIC shopper, I can also use this info to get the most produce for my family for my limited budget.

Basically, WIC-approved foods represent best nutritional density in their categories while at the lowest unit price. And you can find these foods easily by scanning for WIC shelf labels.