Table 5

Proxies for Shopping Effort across the Benefit Month

First Half of SNAP MonthSecond Half of SNAP MonthDifferenceN
Seven-day volume index  1.07  0.94  0.13***
(0.03)		1,304
Event volume index  1.06  0.95  0.10***
(0.02)		1,304
Total food-at-home and food-away-from-home events11.4911.06  0.43
(0.77)		1,304
Total food-at-home trips  4.03  4.02  0.01
(0.19)		1,304
Total food-at-home trips excluding free events  3.80  3.61  0.19
(0.18)		1,304
Total large-volume stores trips excluding free events  2.75  2.33  0.42***
(0.13)		1,304
Conditional visits per store—food-at-home events  1.63  1.58  0.05
(0.06)		1304
Conditional visits per store—not-free food-at-home events  1.66  1.56  0.10
(0.07)		1,303
Conditional visits per store—not-free large-volume stores  1.69  1.58  0.11*
(0.06)		1,217
Number of unique stores—food-at-home events  2.66  2.69−0.03
(0.15)		1,304
Number of unique stores—not-free food-at-home events  2.46  2.43  0.03
(0.13)		1,303
Number of unique stores—not-free large-volume stores  1.79  1.65  0.14**
(0.07)		1,217
Number of days with at least one food-at-home event  2.92  2.89  0.03
(0.10)		1,304
Number of days with at least one not-free food-at-home event  2.79  2.65  0.14
(0.10)		1,304
Number of days with at least one not-free large-volume stores event  2.18  1.89  0.29**
(0.11)		1,304
Receipt savings  1.61  0.96  0.65**
(0.30)		1,304
Percent savings of receipt total  0.01  0.01−0.00
(0.00)		1,304
Observed coupon use (transaction or item level) on receipt  0.23  0.13  0.10**
(0.04)		1,304
Share of all expenditures on large items  0.39  0.39−0.00
(0.02)		1,273
Share of all items purchased that were in large packages  0.29  0.32−0.03*
(0.02)		1,282

  • Source: Authors’ estimates using FoodAPS data and the FoodAPS IRI subset.

  • Notes: Survey weights applied in estimation and standard errors (in parentheses) adjust for complex survey design. Significance:

  • ↵* p < 0.10,

  • ↵** p < 0.05,

  • ↵*** p < 0.01. First Half of SNAP Month = at least one survey day occurs less than seven days since SNAP was last received.