First posted on Instagram
President Donald Trump has agreed to delay new federal stocking requirements for stores that accept food stamps by 90 days nationwide, after direct negotiations with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, giving bodegas, corner stores and other small retailers across the country more time to meet rules that took effect on November 4.
Mamdani had asked for six months. In a letter sent on November 2 to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, he warned the rules could cost many of the city's roughly 10,000 bodegas and corner stores their ability to accept SNAP, and asked that enforcement be pushed back to May 4, 2027. The 90-day delay gives stores until early February instead. Mamdani publicly thanked Trump and Rollins for the relief.
Under the new rules, most stores that accept SNAP must continuously stock at least seven varieties in each of four staple food categories — dairy, grains, protein, and fruits and vegetables — with at least three units of each variety, 28 varieties and 84 items in all, and at least one perishable variety in three of the four categories. A store that falls short risks losing its authorization to accept SNAP, and must wait six months to reapply.
The stakes are high for small shops. The Agriculture Department's own analysis estimates that about 5,000 stores could lose their eligibility under the new requirements, and small retailers — bodegas, convenience stores, small grocery stores and shops selling food alongside other goods — make up roughly 70 percent of SNAP retailers nationwide. More than 100 bodega owners had contacted the city with concerns about meeting the standard. The department finalized the rules in May, carrying out a stocking requirement Congress first set in the 2014 farm bill.
The agreement is a reversal from just last week. As recently as November 4, the Agriculture Department said it had no plans to extend the deadline, despite requests from convenience-store groups and 12 Republican senators, saying the rules would take effect the day after Election Day. The deal came after direct talks between Mamdani and Trump.
The two leaders have clashed repeatedly over food assistance. Trump has blamed Democrats for the lapse in SNAP benefits during the government shutdown fight, while Mamdani has called the new federal rules devastating and made protecting food aid a centrepiece of his first months in office. On Friday, November 13, they struck a deal directly.