Posted on 10/15/2013 6:56:06 AM PDT by TigerClaws
MANSFIELD, LA (KSLA) - When a wild shopping spree fueled by what appeared to be "limitless" Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards ensued at two Louisiana Walmarts, not everyone who receive food stamp benefits joined in.
Additional Links Food stamp shopping spree: Who pays? EBT cards: The great debate Walmart shelves in Springhill, Mansfield, cleared in EBT glitch DCFS: All SNAP EBT service restored In cell phone video that is circulating the Internet, several hundred people can be seen filling their shopping carts at Springhill and Mansfield Walmarts, when the stores apparently continued accepting EBT cards even though they weren't showing limits.
However, what can't be seen in those videos are the people who get food stamp assistance and chose not to abuse the system. One Ark-La-Tex man, who asked not to be identified, was one of them, though he admits the thought did cross his mind. "The first thing I thought of was, rib eye steak tonight instead of ramen noodles, but if we would have done that, I would have felt too guilty," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wafb.com ...
We know which accounts over-ran their accounts....put them in jail...they are nothing less than thieves.
Actually a follow up story said the gubment would only pay the amount actually on the EBT card. The rest is on Walmart.
So for over $500 in theft that’s a felony. They have all the names, addresses, video of the folks. Politicians going to let them round up a few hundred voters,get them convicted and off the voter rolls?
Walmart going to risk angering the crowd giving it 25-40% of its revenue?
Doubt it on both counts.
I know some good folks who have been forced to food stamps in the Obamaconomy. They bargain shop and don’t wipe out the balance on the card as fast as possible.
I know a family that grew an acre garden this summer after paying for seeds and plants with food stamp benefits. They use the card for things like bread, milk, and meats but have a winter’s worth of veggies ready to go.
The father’s factory closed its doors and left him with 6 kids and no means of support (Mother died a few years ago).
That’s the “hook” for businesses as well.
If you “accept EBT”, then you have some guaranteed shoppers in the form of people who don’t care how much something costs because someone else is paying for it.
They might. I'd bet that WalMart has substantial losses from shoplifting on a regular basis, and a high percentage of the people who abused the cards are among those doing it. Having them arrested and/or banned from the store could easily make up for any lost business.
Few lobby harder than Wal Mart for an ever increasing food stamp budget.
Right. Stuff like Coke and other likely EBTer purchases has a huge mark up.
Of course, if Moo-chelle were really concerned about obesity, there’d be limits on what EBT purchasers could buy. They’d sign a deal with Jenny Craig and get all the fatties on Welfare as customers.
I see at least 3-4 people in ‘scooter’-type things simply for being too fat to walk every time I go to Walmart.
The media is just pathetic. This is one of the 3 biggest outrages of the year (1. WWII and other memorial closings, 2. Obamacare rollout) yet they are desperate to try and find the “silver lining” to report so as to avid the obvious news of a kleptomaniac Black underclass rampaging through WalMart.
I wonder how word spread so fast. there is almost no way that many people were shopping under normal conditions, just happened to notice that their limit was removed, and promptly went bonkers.
was it social media? did people shout it from the street corners and the rooftops? obama phones? what?
A certain group of people were just doing what that certain group of people are privileged to do by virtue of license from a foolish society. They was taken’ from whitey, using their free food cards, payback for all that has been took from them. They be getten’ their stuff. We are fortunate their (group psychotic) didn’t turn into a killing frenzy.
Well that's just disgusting.
As of earlier this morning, it was being reported that the “Ministry of Free Sh!t” had told WalMart that they would have to bear the loss, because they accepted the faulty cards. Has there been a change?
The title is correct. To illustrate: The EBT card holders in Hawaii, Alaska, and Maine could not participate because they did not live within driving distance.
But I'd wait to see what WalMart's lawyers have to say about absorbing the loss for the failure of government computers.
Politically, the gubmint will say one thing for public consumption, but they'll be a quiet deal down the road where the taxpayer pays for the party.
You seeemed to be serious when you penned that post. Or maybe I just couldn’t hear your snicker.
Left unanswered, however, was the question of how best to handle the resulting riot if WalMart cashiers would refuse to ring up more than the normal EBT limit.
Somehow, I think you purposely didn’t address that question.
Wal-Mart is going to be what G.U.M. was in the former Soviet Union.
Or, forgot to charge up their Obamaphones and didn't get the call.
How hard would it be to program the scanners to reject EBT for other than basic needs?
They are already set up that way, but the “accept” list is pretty loose.
One Ark-La-Tex man....
***
Okay, am I the only one here who does not know what that means? Does it mean he lives in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas simultaneously?
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.