Grocery Store Yarns: Oh Sure You Didn't Know..

[XCashier]

...I ended up blacklisting him anyway. I felt no guilt over it, either.

Good. He deserves to have his food stamps taken away if he does stuff like that. The ones who abuse the system make things far more difficult for those who really need it.

[TheSHAD0W]

Is it Fratching to opine that hot food being disallowed on EBT should be rethought, now that so many people using them are underemployed rather than unemployed and may need to get lunch for themselves?

[Jay 2K Winger]

Is it Fratching to opine that hot food being disallowed on EBT should be rethought, now that so many people using them are underemployed rather than unemployed and may need to get lunch for themselves?

Yes, I think so. Let's not get into that debate here.

[EricKei]

Well, since you asked, yes - We would prefer discussions of that sort over on Fratching.com, due to the likelihood of things getting heated. If you would like to, feel free to start or join a thread on the topic over there, and drop a link to it in this thread.

(PS, just FYI: In the future -- and this goes for everyone -- It's better to PM us before making a post )

[Smapti]

Some of the older stores in my chain have a take-and-bake pizza department where you can either order your pizza and cook it at home, or pay extra for them to bake it for you. Apparently, one of the reasons they're not putting them in the newer stores (including mine) was because it was too much of a pain in the ass dealing with people paying EBT for the cold pizza and then paying cash for the warm-up, which is technically legal in this state but creates an accounting nightmare.

[ADeMartino]

he EBT card owner has to be pre-approved for use in such places, and can only use them at places that take them. This is intended for people who are disabled enough that they can't prepare food on their own.

Yes, that sounds about right. My source was most assuredly not an expert, so I'll defer to your knowledge. I'm sure there's a whole 'nother set of rules in place for such instances, such as type of restaurant, where it's located, and so on.

[taxguykarl]

One guy actually tried to bribe me with a whole booklet of those food stamps, which amounted to something like $47 - for a $13 pizza.

4 times the amount? Nothing I hadn't seen, my ex-GF's real BF once offered me 10 times...his crack dealer apparently didn't take food stamps.

[strawbabies]

How is it that I've never been on public assistance or worked in a grocery store, and I know you can't use food stamps for prepared food, but those people supposedly don't?

[Ironclad Alibi]

How is it that I've never been on public assistance or worked in a grocery store, and I know you can't use food stamps for prepared food, but those people supposedly don't?

Simple. You are not an SC.

[eltf177]

Simple. You are not an SC.

Or an EW...

[Sapphire Silk]

You'd be surprised at how often people believe they can get hot items on EBT. Whenever I help the food place in the Warehouse out, there are a bunch of people that try to use EBT on their lunch. Yea, sure, there's a few items that qualifies for EBT but they aren't the 'hot' variety. Cue a bunch of fussing over it and they hand the food back, of which I have to, sadly, tell them to throw the food away because I can't take it back over the counter to sell it. Health reasons and all that.

Which explains why Costco doesn't take any kind of debit, credit or other kind of card at the hot foot window after checkout. You pay cash, or have it put on your debit card when pay for your other stuff.

[Deserted]

There's at least one state that allows restaurants to take only certain people's EBT cards. The EBT card owner has to be pre-approved for use in such places, and can only use them at places that take them. This is intended for people who are disabled enough that they can't prepare food on their own. I know that several pizza delivery places take EBT in that state, but I'm not sure who else.

That state must be Desert Hell. For about a month now, I've been seeing a certain fast food chain whose name is a classical toy (let's call it John in the Cube) with signs all over the place proclaiming "WE TAKE EBT!"

[mathnerd]

I wasn't referring to desert hell, so that makes at least two states.

I also remembered that in Florida, after a particularly rough hurricane season (four moderate hurricanes in 6 weeks), they allowed people to temporarily use EBT at fast food places and for hot food at grocery stores because so many people couldn't used the kitchens in their own homes due to loss of power. The power company tends to get the business areas up first, so grocery stores and some restaurants had power even if most of the residents did not.

I was without power for a combined total of 5 weeks that year, with the last storm knocking out power to my home for almost 3 weeks before it was restored. The house was in a "one switch, one house" area and always the last on the priority list to get reconnected after a storm. Of course, i had a kick ass outdoor kitchen, so while I spent a shit ton in dry ice to keep things cold, I was able to cook anything I wanted.