Of all government welfare programs, the best loved might be WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. WIC emphasizes good nutrition, limits what clients may buy with their vouchers and, by many accounts, is an effective way to give poor kids a better start in life. That’s why Maine should prepare for a change coming to WIC, not from the government and not from its clients, but from a new kind of store.

WIC vouchers are limited to healthy items such as milk, eggs, cheese, infant formula, carrots, certain cereals, peanut butter and tuna fish. In the proper portions, these foods can provide a superior, and affordable, diet. Affordability is key because the federal dollars that support WIC are limited, and even when a state has surplus funding, it is sent to other states where there are shortages. Though WIC clients often are not sensitive to price changes, the many other non-WIC customers that shop at these stores are and so help keep prices down.

This, at least, has been the tradition until recently nationwide. But now, in at least 13 states, especially California, a new kind of store stocking only WIC foods to be purchased with WIC vouchers is changing the economic equation. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities recently assessed the spread of these stores and the conclusion is that the federal government – or Maine’s, for that matter -shouldn’t wait for them to continue to spread.

Between 2000 and 2002, the number of WIC-only stores grew 49 percent to 778 stores, accounting for as much as 40 percent of WIC purchases in California, the center reports. Though they accounted for only 2 percent of WIC vendors in 2002, they received 9 percent of all WIC voucher redemptions.

Without customers who have an incentive to shop for lower prices, the center found, prices at these stores were 4 percent to 7 percent higher than at competitive grocery stores, higher even than the smallest competitive stores, the center found, arguing that the higher prices are partly the result of WIC-only stores tending to price their food at near the top of the maximum a state WIC program allows. Lowering those top prices is difficult because they were set to accommodate unusual circumstances, such as a small store in a rural area.

Maine has the luxury of time with these stores, though it is not clear how much. The state would do well to develop strategies that anticipate these stores coming to Maine, perhaps making their vendor approval based on prices for different classes of stores. WIC is such a valuable program that it deserves careful thinking about meeting this new challenge and remaining an effective, affordable service.