Buyers do not have to buy big agribusiness food with the money though. They can - right now - pretty much choose their own food.

You left out a big part of the puzzle though.

In my small city, layoffs hit very hard. VERY.
We had 8 or 9 grocery stores.

Now we have 2.

If there'd been no food stamps, we'd probably ONLY have Walmart left to buy groceries from.

When those grocery stores shut down, those workers lost jobs. People lost choice - whether they were on food stamps or not.

Without food stamps, people may have had to drive out of town to buy groceries. Some do anyway- since we're at the state line, some might have bought groceries out of state.

Lost of local revenue.

Food stamps benefit our entire population, whether people want to see it or not.