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I have a Chase visa that is very blue, too. I haven't noticed anyone pay with food stamp card, don't know if anyone ever did or not. But it still seems odd to me to take note of everything they are buying as they put it into their bags, then check to see what payment method they are using so they can go "Ah ha!".
I think it falls into something called "stereotyping." People see a certain type of individual with a cart overloaded with hundreds of dollars worth of stuff, including pricey meats, and they wonder "how the heck can they afford this?" Then they notice the blue card, and indeed go, "ah ha!"
*I have a Chase Card too, but mine is black (Star Wars edition )
Last edited by Arcenal813; 01-25-2019 at 11:48 AM..
Again though that poster has no idea if any of the people in line are using food stamps. She just noticed it's "longer than usual" and makes an assumption about why. It's suspicious that on January 2nd there were 7 people in the line at 11:15 a.m. when there are usually 4 people in line at 11:15 a.m., therefore it's proof that our tax dollars are being wasted by ne'er do wells!
Again, I was only explaining that SNAP can be used at certain Starbucks.
My PayPal business card is blue. Never crossed my mind that snoopers might think it's SNAP.
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I guess some here are blind that they never notice what goes on around them. I've noticed food as others put their groceries on the line - not because I'm nosy but it happens and I may remark - Is that any good? - as people do to me all the time when they see an item they've never noticed or tried before.
As far as the use of EBT - when the person says to the cashier - please check this - I don't know if I have enough left to cover all this - it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.
As I've stated before - we were on food stamps 34 years ago when my husband was laid off - I used coupons and bought ground beef and chicken while my friends would use it on steaks and lobster - they use to joke that they've never been able to eat so well.
For a family of 3 - all adults - I spend approx. $100 a week on food which includes pop, snacks and paper items like TP, paper towels, kleenix and paper plates. There is no reason these people can't live on what SNAP provides them if they shop smart. And those with small kids also get WIC which gives you so much - a family can't possibly use it all.
To post #50. If I'm being repetitious, I apologize.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eliza61nyc
But there is a reason for that Dubble, if you get your benefits on the 15th of the month, by the time the first comes around you're usually a day or two out of food, so yes you are counting down the seconds until you card gets a deposit.
You see the same phenomena with seniors who are trying to exist on social security. When they get those checks, that's when they do their shopping and bill paying.
Now as usually this is a complex issue and I object to the labeling of these people as some dead beats that are blowing their money on "luxuries". They ain't running around buying rib eye steaks.
So first let me say that my experience is from Camden NJ and North Philadelphia. I am happy to say in Camden there is headways being made in the poverty levels but first some demographics, almost 1/3 live below the poverty level and over 50% is on some type of government assistance (welfare, snap or housing assistance) my organization (faith based) concentrates on single moms and low wage earning household.
You are right in one area and that is many do not have the information on meal preparation. a lot of them, the poverty is generational so they grew up in households with bad habits and those trickle down. lol, do you know in my house and we were fairly middle class, we did not eat beans?? My mom would make a traditional black eyed peas for good luck on NY's day but that's it. So I laugh how people say beans are a great cheap meal. I'm darn near 60 and the only way I know how to prepare beans is if it's a can of Campbels pork and beans.
Next, up until recently the area was a supermarket wasteland.
I'm betting the young man who brought the 50 bucks of hot pocket HAD NO STOVE. real hard to prepare a meal if you rent a room without access to a kitchen. and yes landlords are supposed to provide access to a kitchen but what they are supposed to do and what they do in practice is two different things. We have young women who rent rooms where they cannot use the houses kitchen so they have little microwaves in their rooms or if they put food in the refrigerator it's stolen.
So we need to stop making generalizations and dig deeper.
now I too did not like them getting their benefits as one lump sum, so many struggle with budgeting already it's going to be hard.
From 2015 per the census bureau, 98.6^ of households have a gas or electric stove, and 96.8% have a microwave. It's more likely the young man doesn't know how to cook. A lot of my clients when I was a public health nurse did not have cooking skills, especially the teen moms. https://www.census.gov/history/www/h...ober_2015.html
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2sleepy
My son worked in grocery for years and he said people who have SNAP generally buy the same food as other people. He said they buy soda, chips and cereal but so do 80% of the other shoppers. I understand that is anecdotal evidence but my experience confirms it, I lived in a wealthy part of Reno and a large number of the residents shopped at the same grocery store that I did. There were no beaters in the parking lot just lots of new SUVs and BMWs but most of those well dressed Amex black card holders going through the checkout line were buying lots of soda, chips, donuts and just plain crap food.
I've also done volunteer work with the poor for decades and part of that entailed driving people to the store so that they could shop and the main differences I saw in shopping by SNAP recipients were attributable to many of them not having full kitchens, and having to cook using microwaves and hot plates, or renting a single room with no kitchen at all and having to buy food that didn't require refrigeration or cooking.
So it seems to me that you either aren't aware that people who don't get SNAP spend their money on pretty much the same foods as SNAP recipients, or you chose to ignore that in order to shame SNAP recipients.
But don't believe me, here is a list based on USDA data of what foods most SNAP recipients buy, and it also compares each listed item with the number of purchases for the same food by non SNAP recipients https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-car...ry-store.html/
The "Cheat Sheet" is interesting. Back in the 70s, I worked with a lot of poor people as a public health nurse and it sounds right to me. Most of my clients bought stuff like mac and cheese in a jar, chefboyardee spaghetti in a can and the like.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ClaraC
WIC (Women Infants and Children) only allows the purchase of healthyish foods with their coupons. I wonder if the same could be done with SNAP?
Back in the day when Food Stamps were supposed to cover all of a household's food needs for a month, I strongly disagreed with the above. But now that they're supposed to be supplemental, I think it might be a good idea to limit what SNAP can pay for. I'm not sure what I'd limit it to off the top of my head. I never had any problem with disallowing cigarettes, alcohol, and stuff you can buy in a grocery store other than food, e.g. health and beauty products, Broncos shirts, cleaning products, and the like.
For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it used to be you would pay, say, $50 and get $100 worth of food stamps. (Made up numbers, but you get the gist, I hope.) They actually looked like Monopoly money. Some time in the late 70s/early 80s, the program was restructured so that a person in the above situation would simply get $50 worth of food stamps (at the time, now EBT cards).
Quote:
Originally Posted by D. Scott
Some people prioritize and budget carefully. However many don't, some use the benefits at corrupt corner shops to buy beer and cigarettes. I know one person who asked me for $35 bucks one time, after I had treated him for a nice lunch. He mentioned he had put "too many packs of cigarettes on his food stamp card." I actually gave him the cash. Guess what he did with it?
Went and spent $15 of it on cigarettes.
You can't buy cigarettes or alcohol with food stamps.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eliza61nyc
Lol, every last one of my clients works 6 if not 7 days a week.
Free?? They actually hate holidays like today because they don't get paid.
What kind of clients do you have? My public health clients were mostly not working at all. The vast majority were moms with kids.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lowexpectations
That’s not why it’s ridiculous. It would be ridiculous to limit benefits to canned and dehydrated goods that’s why it went no where not because of Walmart
I guess some here are blind that they never notice what goes on around them. I've noticed food as others put their groceries on the line - not because I'm nosy but it happens and I may remark - Is that any good? - as people do to me all the time when they see an item they've never noticed or tried before.
As far as the use of EBT - when the person says to the cashier - please check this - I don't know if I have enough left to cover all this - it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.
As I've stated before - we were on food stamps 34 years ago when my husband was laid off - I used coupons and bought ground beef and chicken while my friends would use it on steaks and lobster - they use to joke that they've never been able to eat so well.
For a family of 3 - all adults - I spend approx. $100 a week on food which includes pop, snacks and paper items like TP, paper towels, kleenix and paper plates. There is no reason these people can't live on what SNAP provides them if they shop smart. And those with small kids also get WIC which gives you so much - a family can't possibly use it all.
Oh, come on! I've never known anyone on food stamps to use them on steaks and lobster. Certainly my teen mom clients didn't even know how to prepare those foods. And the thing is with food stamps, when they run out, they run out. That tended to be a problem at the end of the month. Sometimes (pre-WIC) moms didn't have enough left to buy baby formula.
You can't buy cigarettes or alcohol with food stamps.
Quote:
Originally Posted by D. Scott
Some people prioritize and budget carefully. However many don't, some use the benefits at corrupt corner shops to buy beer and cigarettes.
You can if the merchant processes the sale as "groceries." I know of two such places within a 5 mile radius from my house.
A Mexican grocery store down the road from me got shut down a few years ago for this reason exactly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katarina Witt
Oh, come on! I've never known anyone on food stamps to use them on steaks and lobster. Certainly my teen mom clients didn't even know how to prepare those foods. And the thing is with food stamps, when they run out, they run out. That tended to be a problem at the end of the month. Sometimes (pre-WIC) moms didn't have enough left to buy baby formula.
Eh..... I could pull up pictures of my ex's sister's FB account right now and share, but I won't. You would be shocked to see what the EBT card was buying, and how she and her "man" were constantly showcasing their fancy food on social media.
You can if the merchant processes the sale as "groceries." I know of two such places within a 5 mile radius from my house.
A Mexican grocery store down the road from me got shut down a few years ago for this reason exactly.
Eh..... I could pull up pictures of my ex's sister's FB account right now and share, but I won't. You would be shocked to see what the EBT card was buying, and how she and her "man" were constantly showcasing their fancy food on social media.
Well, OK, you're not supposed to buy alcohol and cigarettes on SNAP. Obviously, these guys got caught and shut down.
I guess some here are blind that they never notice what goes on around them. I've noticed food as others put their groceries on the line - not because I'm nosy but it happens and I may remark - Is that any good? - as people do to me all the time when they see an item they've never noticed or tried before.
Some of us who are pretty aware of what's going on around us simply don't care what someone else has in their cart. Personally, I cook from scratch or eat in restaurants, so the latest snack or convenience items are of no interest to me.
ETA I might notice a random item or two but otherwise the contents of other people's carts are of no interest to me. Neither is whatever card they're using.
Well, OK, you're not supposed to buy alcohol and cigarettes on SNAP. Obviously, these guys got caught and shut down.
They are in the minority too. MANY places esp in large cities are corrupt with this, the authorities can never crack down on them all. Ive known guys who were able bodied, never worked, using the benefit card for cigs and booze. There were other bad lifestyle choices with these though. Some of these guys had 2 or 3 kids with different women, took drugs, sold drugs. No support offered to the kids they had. Social welfare problems are always open to abuse, but most people abusing it would not be living responsible lives regardless. It certainly provides less motivation to change though in these cases.
Certainly cannot paint all recipients or benefits with the same brush. Some only focus on the above types of people though with this subject.
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Some of us who are pretty aware of what's going on around us simply don't care what someone else has in their cart. Personally, I cook from scratch or eat in restaurants, so the latest snack or convenience items are of no interest to me.