Rude Employee

[tigger222]

My friend was telling that she went shopping a couple of days ago. She went to check out was told that she couldn't use her WIC checks for name brand milk. Not because it wasn't WIC approved but because the store didn't make as much money off of it. I thought that stores were supposed to take the checks as long as WIC approved of it. Are stores allowed to do this? Its not like she was an sc she will usually take a couple of hours to do her shopping because she compares everything and will buy the best deal at the lowest price even with her WIC checks. The only thing that she insist on buying name brand on is the milk.

[Bright_Star]

IF it's WIC approved then the store MUST accept it or they can get into serious trouble. Saying that the store won't make a profit off of it is against WIC regulations. How do I know? I know because when I was a cashier at Wal-Mart we had to be well versed in proper WIC procedures. We even had a representative from the WIC program come in & give us training on what to do & what NOT to do when it came to all things WIC.
Your friend needs to call the WIC office & explain to them what happened & let them take it from there.

[tigger222]

She took down his name and said that she would be reporting both him and the store to WIC and he still wouldn't let her make the purchase.

[Ljt09863]

actually, i tihnk a store has to be licensed to accept WIC, and if they don't want to get licensed, they don't have to.

the Walgreens in my area only accept it for formula, because thats the only one we are licensed for, since we don't carry most of the rest of WIC approved stuff. so we could lose our license if we accept a WIC check for anything else.

so if its a small store, chances are, they didn't want to spend the money to get a license.

now, if a store IS licensed, i can see where they would get into trouble if they refused a WIC check for that reason.

just because you are a store, doesn't mean you have to accept WIC.

but my question is, was the employee rude about how they said it, or was the employee rude cause they said they wont accept the check?

[tigger222]

It was how he said it. She was in Safeway and they had taken her checks for the name brand milk before. This was the first time they had refused to take her checks for it.

[Mike Taylor]

It was how he said it. She was in Safeway and they had taken her checks for the name brand milk before. This was the first time they had refused to take her checks for it.

Safeway/Tom Thumb/Dominick's takes WIC. I've seen the labels all over the Dominick's stores in Chicago.

[ViolaPlayer]

Hmmm... there is more to this story I bet. I know in our store, we can't accept WIC for name brand milk. It's not approved under our contract. It doesn't have a thing to do with cost.

I wonder if this person was being a jerk (highly possible) or misunderstood what is truly allowed under their contract. (also highly possible) Or just can't explain policies in a way that is customer friendly.

And I know that you understand that because something was allowed in the past doesn't mean it was right under policy. But there are certainly better ways to present this to customers.

The WIC office definitely needs to investigate what happened here. Any way you slice it, something isn't right.

[wagegoth]

I don't like Safeway. It's the grocery store on the bottom of my list for shopping.

[Sliceanddice]

I don't like Safeway. It's the grocery store on the bottom of my list for shopping.

same here im a frys girl

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

The Grocery Store of Awesome that I frequent has certain items tagged with "WIC approved." signs. So maybe only certain brands of items qualify?

The only people who can say for certain whether the cashier was right are those at the WIC office.

[wagegoth]

The Grocery Store of Awesome that I frequent has certain items tagged with "WIC approved." signs. So maybe only certain brands of items qualify?

The only people who can say for certain whether the cashier was right are those at the WIC office.

The WIC checks usually list what can be purchased with it. They have dollar amounts and the cereal ones specify the type of cereal. What can be purchased varies from county to county. A WIC check may be good for one item in Sacramento, but not good for that same item in San Francisco. It's a weird system, and should be streamlined, but I like that fact that the only thing that can be purchased is relatively healthy food, mostly for children.

[CTB]

I am a cashier at a Walmart in our area and I also use WIC for my 2 kids. According to our WIC you can NOT buy naame brand milk it has to be the store brand. That is printed on the folder that everyone gets that shows what you can and cannot buy.

It has been that way for over 20 years. I was also a cashier back in the 90's for over 10 years.

[tigger222]

It might be that the rules are different in out area because we are a small town with mostly family owned stores so the majority of them only have name brand milk. But it might very from store to store to. I'll let you know after she talks to the WIC office and see what they have to say about it.

[XCashier]

same here im a frys girl

I miss Fry's (former Zonie here! ), but WinCo is pretty good for basics.

As far as the OP goes, is there a reason she only buys the name brand milk instead of store brand? Is it on the list of accepted items? The employee certainly could've been more polite about it, but IIRC WIC prefers its participants to use the store brands.

[tigger222]

She says that it taste better and is better quality. Also the name brand comes from a local dairy.