Daniel Woodruff is a reporter/anchor with deep experience covering Utah news. He is a native of Provo and a graduate of Brigham Young University. Daniel has also worked as a journalist in Indiana and Wisconsin.
LAYTON – As he puts it, Clayton Cook's discount store sells "everything."His four Utah and three Idaho locations of Big Deal Outlet offer things like food, blankets, clothing, and toys. Signs advertising rock-bottom prices are everywhere.
The stores also sell soda, which can no longer be purchased in Utah using SNAP benefits, commonly known as food stamps. That change was approved by state lawmakers last year and went into effect Jan. 1.Cook initially believed that change would be a "simple fix" on his end, but it wasn't. His retail software couldn't differentiate between eligible and ineligible items. Sodas and soft drinks at Big Deal Outlet in Layton, Wednesday. Owner Clayton Cook said it's been difficult to align with new SNAP restrictions on sodas and candy. "We had to pay for some custom programming that took a couple weeks and a couple thousand dollars just to be able to segregate and say, 'This food is eligible and this isn't,'" Cook said in an interview Wednesday at his Layton store, "because that's never happened before in the SNAP program."A 'burden' to navigateFiguring those regulations out, he said, is a burden on businesses, and it's even worse in Idaho where both soda and candy are on the banned list of SNAP purchases, as of Feb. 15.For example, Cook noted a box of protein bars qualifies as candy under Idaho's law, while a bag of Twix bars does not since it has flour in it."The burden is on the retailer to decide on every individual product," Cook said.During the legislative session, which wrapped up earlier this month, Utah lawmakers debated additional restrictions on SNAP benefits. Rep. Kristen Chevrier, R-Highland, proposed prohibiting those benefits from being used to buy "ultra-processed foods," a move she said would help people be healthier.Chevrier sponsored Utah's initial ban on soda purchases, which got attention from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who said it was part of making Utah a leader in his "Make America Healthy Again" movement. Snacks at Big Deal Outlet in Layton, Wednesday. A bill was proposed in the Legislature to further limit what can be purchased on SNAP benefits, including snack items like these. But this year's proposal, HB569, stalled over concerns about how ultra-processed foods were defined. Still, Chevrier said she plans to keep discussing the issue ov
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