Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

2025 SNAP Crisis: Walmart Theft Threats Rise as Shutdown Drags On
snapbenefitcalculator ^ | / October 22, 2025 | By Akash Biswas

Posted on 10/26/2025 1:33:42 AM PDT by dennisw

The U.S. government has been shut down for three weeks since October 1. If it doesn’t end soon, millions of people will lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments starting November 1. With 41.7 million recipients nationwide relying on these food stamps, states warn of halted payments without federal funding. Social media erupts with videos of desperate individuals threatening to loot Walmart stores, turning policy gridlock into potential retail mayhem.

The USDA’s SNAP program, which injected $99.8 billion into economies in FY 2024 with average monthly benefits of $187 per person, faces a funding freeze.

October payments should proceed, but November’s billions are at risk if the shutdown persists past October 27.

States like California, Texas, and Arkansas urge stockpiling, as delays could spike hunger, school absences, and food bank strains, echoing 2013’s EBT glitches.

Walmart, serving SNAP via EBT at 4,600+ locations, braces for impact. Spokespeople monitor closely, hinting at bolstered security amid rising theft fears.

The retailer donated $2 million to hunger relief this year, but warns that unchecked shoplifting could raise prices in vulnerable areas.

Online fury boils over. A TikTok video shows a Texas woman in her car, mason jar in hand, ranting, “Food stamps or we stealing OG!” She vows to “hit Walmart hard” if EBT dries up.

Another clip features a man in a tank top bellowing he’ll “rack up” a cart and walk out unpaid, blaming the shutdown.

These posts, amassing millions of views, predict retail spikes. One user warns, “People will kill to not die… Grocery store employees will be beaten up if they don’t let people steal.”

Single mothers echo, “We’ll go to Walmart and steal food.“

Advocates call it systemic desperation, not crime, yet police in SNAP-heavy zones prepare for surges, recalling 2023’s EBT fraud billions.

Politics polarize: Republicans eye cuts and work rules effective November 1; Democrats decry “cruel” delays.

SNAP aids 70% of the working poor, seniors, and parents, or 1 in 8 Americans. With Thanksgiving approaching, communities are on the march: in Detroit, pantries, and job fairs in Phoenix. Lawmakers must compromise before aisles turn to battlegrounds. Hunger isn’t leverage; it’s a crisis demanding fixes, not fights.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Food
KEYWORDS: crime; criminals; snap; thieves; walmart
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-51 next last

1 posted on 10/26/2025 1:33:42 AM PDT by dennisw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: dennisw

2 posted on 10/26/2025 1:35:49 AM PDT by dennisw (There is no limit to human stupidity )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

Where are the fathers ?


3 posted on 10/26/2025 1:58:01 AM PDT by Freee-dame
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

Entitlement. Backdoor reparations.


4 posted on 10/26/2025 2:07:09 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (“Thinking is difficult. That’s why people prefer to judge” -- Jung.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Freee-dame

On Maury or making new babies.


5 posted on 10/26/2025 2:15:51 AM PDT by Kudsman (48)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

“Spark” theft?! SNAP IS theft!


6 posted on 10/26/2025 2:28:45 AM PDT by albie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Freee-dame

In prison, where else?


7 posted on 10/26/2025 2:33:59 AM PDT by EvilCapitalist (Pets are no substitute for children)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

Time to start complaining about “food deserts”.


8 posted on 10/26/2025 2:34:45 AM PDT by glorgau
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: albie

40,000,000 out of appx. 350,000,000 people in America are on food stamps. Let that sink in for a minute.


9 posted on 10/26/2025 2:35:02 AM PDT by Rocco DiPippo (Either the Deep State destroys America or we destroy the Deep State. -Donald Trump)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Rocco DiPippo

Deport them.


10 posted on 10/26/2025 2:40:33 AM PDT by Kudsman (48)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

Why don’t they have their kids save some food from their free school breakfast, lunch, and dinner and bring it home?

EC


11 posted on 10/26/2025 2:52:04 AM PDT by Ex-Con777 (Leftists quote the Constitution like an atheist quotes the Bible)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RoosterRedux
Entitlement. Backdoor reparations.

When you're talking about federal spending "entitlement" has a precise legal definition.
It has nothing to do with "feeling entitled" to something.
Welfare payments are *not* an entitlement.

Entitlements are paid regardless of the shutdown, such as Social Security and military pensions.

Federal spending is in this order: Debt service, entitlements, budget items.

Welfare is a budget item.

What's going on is the Democrats are willing to unleash riots and looting to get their budget.

12 posted on 10/26/2025 2:57:52 AM PDT by Salman (It's not a slippery slope if it was part of the program all along.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Salman
[What's going on is the Democrats are willing to unleash riots and looting]

The Standard Democrat / Socialist Plan of Destruction

[This is today’s Democrat Party]

["No, I’m a DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST,"
Zohran Mamdani told CNN earlier this week]


All involved in #1 and #2 should have been
arrested and charged with Domestic Terrorism.

#3 we know how that turned out...


1st is Los Angeles, 2025.
2nd is Wisconsin, 2020.
3rd is Kristallnacht, 1938.





13 posted on 10/26/2025 3:08:23 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Ex-Con777

It’s the millionaires and billionaires that are stealing from these gentle folks though. Smh


14 posted on 10/26/2025 3:17:06 AM PDT by Kudsman (48)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Salman
So effing what? The legal definition?

Marxism in America has created a sense of entitlement among those who have been indoctrinated to believe they are victims. They feel entitled the goods and services that belong to others. They feel owed, so they feel no guilt about stealing.

15 posted on 10/26/2025 3:43:27 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (“Thinking is difficult. That’s why people prefer to judge” -- Jung.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Kudsman

If you mean Schumer and Jeffries, both are millionaires, then yes.

EC


16 posted on 10/26/2025 3:53:12 AM PDT by Ex-Con777 (Leftists quote the Constitution like an atheist quotes the Bible)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Rocco DiPippo

Not a single H1-B worker among them.


17 posted on 10/26/2025 4:04:20 AM PDT by Bobbyvotes (Work is worship! .... Bhagavad Geeta)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

With any luck, the government will be shut down for at least an extra month and we’ll find out that the SNAP program is not actually needed.

Some things to keep in mind:

-Famines are always associated with severe reduction to food supply, never solely due to finances. As far as I know, there has never been a famine in the US.

-It doesn’t take a government to hand someone a sandwich. When people are truly in need, the public steps up. The only problem here are stupid states like CA that over-regulate food charities.

-How many SNAP accounts are for bona-fide needy? Given the state of voter rolls, I wonder how often accounts are screened. Along this line:

-—A lot of folks use payday loans and choke down the loss of 10% of their paycheck so as to deliberately not have a bank account where their assets can be discovered, causing a loss of benefits. The $ value of benefits exceed the 10% pay hit.

-—Foreign actors have been known to set up fraudulent accounts to get money out of the US in other areas like student loans, emergency loans, etc., why not here?

-—When someone enters the program, how often is their financial situation re-evaluated?. Take Maryland where even politicians have taken homestead exemptions on property tax when no longer qualified. This never happens on SNAP?

-—I wouldn’t be surprised if Letitia Jame’s niece is getting SNAP. All she has to do is claim she’s actually paying rent at her aunt’s house, even though she is not, and POOF - free fatness.


18 posted on 10/26/2025 4:07:28 AM PDT by fruser1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

“The USDA’s SNAP program, which injected $99.8 billion into economies in FY 2024”

BS, the money was taken from us taxpayers. Redistribution of wealth is the only thing congress does well.


19 posted on 10/26/2025 4:08:00 AM PDT by quantim (Victory is not relative, it is absolute.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

Anyone arrested for theft should have their benefits permanently cut off.

12% is FAR too many parasites.


20 posted on 10/26/2025 4:14:17 AM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus….)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-51 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson