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Amazon got USPS to deliver on Sundays, and they have a huge delivery and distribution network with prices that can rival local retailers. The food stamp orders wouldn't need to be delivered in 2 hrs or less, so they could be done by off peak Uber drivers and others looking to earn a few bucks on evenings and weekends.
If they created a low end division with a focus on mass distributing WIC items and things that can be purchased with food stamps, why not go that route instead of relying on shady convenience stores and government run shops?
It would be MUCH easier to track fraud, and the government doesn't have to administer anything besides eligibility and payments. Food goes to the address registered for benefits, and only approved food qualifies.
Many poor people don't have computers and/or internet, and Prime is not free. Also you'd have the issue where their groceries are being delivered in poor, crime-ridden areas and left out until the folks are home...so if the mom gets home from work and the box is gone, what then? They just don't eat while UPS investigates? Also someone would have to be home for refrigerated items, which also cost more to ship (who is paying for that?) ,forget frozen it would be cost-prohibitive to ship...so if a food stamp recipient works (which most do) who is home to take the delivery?
Amazon got USPS to deliver on Sundays, and they have a huge delivery and distribution network with prices that can rival local retailers. The food stamp orders wouldn't need to be delivered in 2 hrs or less, so they could be done by off peak Uber drivers and others looking to earn a few bucks on evenings and weekends.
If they created a low end division with a focus on mass distributing WIC items and things that can be purchased with food stamps, why not go that route instead of relying on shady convenience stores and government run shops?
It would be MUCH easier to track fraud, and the government doesn't have to administer anything besides eligibility and payments. Food goes to the address registered for benefits, and only approved food qualifies.
Moderator cut: Personal Attacks Since I am disabled and live on a very small fixed income, I qualify for SNAP. I suppose that some people who live in the so-called "food deserts" - too far to easily go to the grocery store - resort to "shady convenience stores" because that's all that's available, but most SNAP recipients including myself, would never dream of squandering precious food benefits on over-priced cheetos at the local 7/11. In addition, what and where are "government shops"? The only government shops I'm aware of are the ones like in Utah where people purchase liquor - NOT an allowed item with either SNAP or WIC.
I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I don't furtively dash into Kroger’s and then run around like a rat shoveling whatever I see into my shopping cart. Instead, I check for the sales going on and make up a grocery list just like most everyone else does. SNAP is completely computerized and it is next to impossible to buy an unauthorized item with a SNAP card. For example, SNAP won't even pay for a box of herbal tea if it is labeled "medicinal." SNAP pays for food, not medicine. Period. Nor does it require whatever it is "government store" that you are hallucinating about. In case you haven't noticed, the US is a highly technologically advanced first world nation with (among other things) a sophisticated, computerized banking system that is embedded in grocery store registrars from the smallest town to the largest cities. I'm surprised you haven't picked up on this, but perhaps your long absence while serving in the Peace Corps has given you some sort of memory lapse.
Very little fraud goes on with SNAP purchases. The computer will just spit such attempts right back at you with the message "transaction declined." Ever run low on money on your debit or credit card? If you have, did you happen to notice that no matter how many times you swiped your card, the ATM still refused to give you money that you didn't have? SNAP is no different. And in fact, I just read a story from my local paper that reported that SNAP benefits in my poor little remote and rural county are utilized by only half the people who actually qualify for them. Folks in my part of the world don't like applying for gov benefits. Neither do I, but I'm forced to. For some reason, I can't help but think the rest of America has pretty much the same attitudes as we do out here.
And even if SNAP fraud was a real and actual problem, having Amazon drones drop loads of groceries here and there all over the landscape would indeed be an open invitation to fraud, theft, orders sent to the wrong address - on and on. Plus, what makes you think Amazon would provide such a massive, nationwide service free? Moderator cut: Personal Attack
An interesting ideal, the problems being we see delivery as a luxury not a basic necessity for which the population is willing to help. We can't give Amazon and their contractors a monopoly on the food aid business and our logistical system is not up to the task. We can not handle basic operations, much less having Uber drivers on stand by to make emergency runs to restock food stolen off of doorsteps. While Amazon makes good the random package they demand be left so you choose them and not the local Wal*Mart like you might if you have to stand in a Post Office or UPS line on your day off work to pick up a package, with a food shipment more time pressures apply.
As things stand now in big cities now that we are delivering paper towels and razor blades while Amazon and the Postal Service might advertise Sunday deliveries because Postal wages are capped and their is no area adjustments like most Federal employees get they can not recruit or maintain the staff to meet their commitments. FedEx Ground contractors are giving up and UPS's holiday staffing levels are gone so Amazon generates three times the USPS capability on Sundays ( 9 routes with only 3 carriers available) and you get the fake attempted delivery "stop the clock" is the postal slang, messages. That is one thing if we are talking about a book when Amazon sends their will be delivered today message but with food it becomes more problematical
One problem--people have started to steal Amazon packages left at doors. I can imagine the number of thefts of food boxes. Imagine being that single parent that has ordered food with SNAP benefits only to find that the package has gone missing.
Many people using SNAP do work. They can't wait around for a delivery.
Fraud is rampant.....just because you NEED the help, doesn't mean everyone who is getting help actually needs it...
Link, please? I can state that "All cats have two heads," but that doesn't make it true just because I posted it somewhere on the Internet. Actually according to a 2015 Report from the Government Accountability Office and the USDA which administers the SNAP program, fraudulent use of SNAP benefits is about one cent on the dollar. The USDA defines SNAP fraud as selling food benefits for cash, BTW - NOT buying the wrong sorts of food or whatever. As I stated in my previous post, it is next to impossible to run a SNAP card through the register and buy a bottle Mad Dog 20-20, or medicinal marijuana etc. Just because you SEE fraud at every cash register transaction at the grocery store doesn't mean fraud is rampant.
Fraud is rampant.....just because you NEED the help, doesn't mean everyone who is getting help actually needs it...
^ False. Please see the link below your post and above mine that has some actual stats.
On topic, I would feel more comfortable with a government program running such a service- groceries via mail- as they would not profit from it like a company like Amazon would. And I'd rather not see the government outsource the job either. Waste of gov money- just like when states hire contractors to "manage medicaid." Let's save gov funds and cut out the middle man.
^^^
Wouldn't delivering stuff like fresh milk for kids and fresh fruits and veggies via the US mail be a bad idea? Half the stuff would be spoiled in the summer and frozen in the winter. I once had a box of fancy fruit that someone sent me for Christmas completely frozen and thus, worthless by time I got it. The UPS guy just left it next to my door on a day when I had to spend 6 hours at the medical clinic getting some tests. Six hours in sub-freezing temperatures turned all the apples and oranges into a nasty, slimey mess.
I still don't get why groceries should be delivered unless someone is homebound or something. If people don't like the idea of giving a worthless bunch of no-goods free food, why would having it delivered to their door step, so they never even have to get out of their pj's and drive to the grocery store make everyone feel better? But hey, if you want to deliver my groceries to me way out here where I live, ten miles of dirt road from the nearest paved highway, because that way you'll love me again - well, I'd be delighted.
I also don't understand what "approved" food is. Food is food. If someone wants to use their SNAP card to buy nothing but chips and soft drinks, that's a shame; but I notice plenty of other folks without SNAP cards making the same sorts of bad food choices. Are we going to turn the government into the food police, while we're at it? We have enough "nanny government," and people want still MORE? Or are folks horrified at the thought of the stereotypical "welfare queen" prancing out of the grocery store with 4 large live lobsters, a 30 pound prime rib roast, and 17 fancy birthday cakes with 3 layers and lots of fuschia colored frosting - never mind all the frosted roses on top? SNAP funds would never be generous enough to pay for all that, but let's say I did the equivalent for myself - one large live lobster, a 10 pound standing rib roast, and a couple of snazzy birthday cakes - don't forget the roses made from frosting. At that point, there would be no more funds left on my card until next month. I could live it up for 3 or 4 days, but then what? Go out next Saturday to the local cattle auction and sell myself behind the sheep barn to cowboys for a packet of ramen? It's all too absurd for words. Shouldn't people be thinking about the coming election or ISIS or something instead of laying awake and worrying that I and other SNAP recipients are eating birthday cakes?
Last edited by Colorado Rambler; 02-07-2016 at 11:02 PM..
I still don't get why groceries should be delivered unless someone is homebound or something. If people don't like the idea of giving a worthless bunch of no-goods free food, why would having it delivered to their door step, so they never even have to get out of their pj's and drive to the grocery store make everyone feel better? But hey, if you want to deliver my groceries to me way out here where I live, ten miles of dirt road from the nearest paved highway, because that way you'll love me again - well, I'd be delighted.
Supply logistics. Once a company the size of Amazon builds out a distribution network like they have it's somewhat inefficient NOT to use it to full capacity. Arguments about delivery schedules and package theft are minor issues to be solved. They're being solved now.
Then there's the other social aspect, which is the most expensive public wards to service are those in rural areas. A system like this can be used to encourage people to move into more efficiently serviced areas. Those that are truly wealthy enough to afford a country estate can buy their own food.
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