By Connor Hart

Grocery Outlet said the pause in federal government funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program caused a meaningful disruption to sales early on in the fourth quarter, prompting the company to temper its outlook.

The value grocery chain said Tuesday that many of its customers depend on SNAP. As a result of the pause, preliminary comparable store sales in November that were made in the form of electronic-benefits transfer payments fell approximately 8.2%.

Preliminary same-store sales from non-EBT transactions slipped by about 0.5% during the same period.

Based on preliminary results and recent trends, Grocery Outlet said it now expects fourth-quarter comparable sales to be approximately flat, and for adjusted earnings to come in at the low end of its forecast of 21 cents to 23 cents a share.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet were looking for same-store sales growth of 0.6% and adjusted earnings of 22 cents a share.

For the year, the company expects comparable sales growth to come in at the low end of its outlook for up 0.6% to up 0.9%, and for adjusted earnings to come in at the low end of its outlook for between 78 cents and 80 cents a share.

Wall Street modeled for same-store sales to climb 0.8% for the year, and for adjusted earnings of 79 cents a share.

Write to Connor Hart at connor.hart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 03, 2025 08:11 ET (13:11 GMT)

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