Wow....

My Time at Walmart: Why We Need Serious Welfare Reform
December 13, 2011 By crousselle 2,661 Comments

During the 2010 and 2011 summers, I was a cashier at Wal-Mart #1788 in Scarborough, Maine. I spent hours upon hours toiling away at a register, scanning, bagging, and dealing with questionable clientele. These were all expected parts of the job, and I was okay with it. What I didn’t expect to be part of my job at Wal-Mart was to witness massive amounts of welfare fraud and abuse.

I understand that sometimes, people are destitute. They need help, and they accept help from the state in order to feed their families. This is fine. It happens. I’m not against temporary aid helping those who truly need it. What I saw at Wal-Mart, however, was not temporary aid. I witnessed generations of families all relying on the state to buy food and other items.  I literally witnessed small children asking their mothers if they could borrow their EBT cards. I once had a man show me his welfare card for an ID to buy alcohol. The man was from Massachusetts. Governor Michael Dukakis’ signature was on his welfare card. Dukakis’ last gubernatorial term ended in January of 1991. I was born in June of 1991. The man had been on welfare my entire life. That’s not how welfare was intended, but sadly, it is what it has become.

Other things witnessed while working as a cashier included:

a) People ignoring me on their iPhones while the state paid for their food. (For those of you keeping score at home, an iPhone is at least $200, and requires a data package of at least $25 a month. If a person can spend $25+ a month so they can watch YouTube 24/7, I don’t see why they can’t spend that money on food.)

b) People using TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) money to buy such necessities such as earrings, kitkat bars, beer, WWE figurines, and, my personal favorite, a slip n’ slide. TANF money does not have restrictions like food stamps on what can be bought with it.

c) Extravagant purchases made with food stamps; including, but not limited to: steaks, lobsters, and giant birthday cakes.

d) A man who ran a hotdog stand on the pier in Portland, Maine used to come through my line. He would always discuss his hotdog stand and encourage me to “come visit him for lunch some day.” What would he buy? Hotdogs, buns, mustard, ketchup, etc. How would he pay for it? Food stamps. Either that man really likes hotdogs, or the state is paying for his business. Not okay.

The thing that disturbed me more than simple cases of fraud/abuse was the entitled nature of many of my customers. One time, a package of bell peppers did not ring up as food in the computer. After the woman swiped her EBT card, it showed a balance that equaled the cost of the peppers. The woman asked what the charge was, and a quick glance at the register screen showed that the peppers did not ring up as food. (Food items had the letter ‘F’ next to their description.) The woman immediately began yelling at me, saying that, “It’s food! You eat it!”

This wasn’t the only time things like this happened: if a person’s EBT balance was less than they thought it would be, or if their cards were declined, it was somehow my fault. I understand the situation is stressful, but a person should be knowledgeable about how much money is in their account prior to going grocery shopping. EBT totals are printed on receipts, and every cell phone has a calculator function. There’s no excuse, and there’s no reason to yell at the cashier for it.

The worst thing I ever saw at Wal-Mart Scarborough was two women and their children. These women each had multiple carts full of items, and each began loading them at the same time (this should have been a tip-off to their intelligence levels). The first woman, henceforth known as Welfare Queen #1, paid for about $400 worth of food with food stamps. The majority of her food was void of any nutritional value. She then pulled out an entire month’s worth of WIC (Women, Infants, and Children program) checks. I do not mind people paying with WIC, but the woman had virtually none of the correct items. WIC gives each participating mother a book containing actual images of items for which a person can and cannot redeem the voucher. This woman literally failed at image comprehension.

After redeeming 10+ WIC checks, Welfare Queen #1 had me adjust the prices of several items she was buying (Wal-Mart’s policy is to adjust the price of the item without question if it’s within a dollar or two). She then pulled out a vacuum cleaner, and informed me that the cost of the vacuum was $3.48 because, “that’s what the label says.” The vacuum cleaner was next to a stack of crates that were $3.48. Somehow, every other customer was able to discern that the vacuum cleaner was not $3.48, but Welfare Queen #1 and her friend Welfare Queen #2 were fooled. Welfare Queen #2 informed me that she used to work for Wal-Mart, and that the “laws of Wal-Mart legally said” that I would have to sell her the vacuum for $3.48. After contacting my manager, who went off to find the proper vacuum price, Welfare Queen #1 remarked that it must be tough to stand on a mat all day and be a cashier. I looked at her, smiled, shrugged, and said, “Well, it’s a job.” She was speechless. After they finally admitted defeat, (not before Welfare Queen #2 realizing she didn’t have enough money to buy all of the food she had picked out, resulting in the waste of about $200 worth of products) the two women left about an hour and a half after they arrived at my register. The next man in line said that the two women reminded him of buying steel drums and cement. I said I was reminded why I vote Republican.

(snip- much more at the URL above)

ohhhh weeerd?

dupe

My experience as well.  First job was at Baker's (Owned by Kroger) as a cashier/bag boy.  I distinctly remember a lady (race irrelevant, but you can guess) coming in, using both WIC and EBT or whatever the card was.  She was really polite, I took her groceries out to her late model, still temporary tagged in the window, Lexus.  I was shocked.  How the fuck does that happen?

Gee
Never seen that before

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1264794_My_Time_at_Walmart__Why_We_Need_Serious_Welfare_Reform__College_Conservative_Female_.html&light=College

yup....post count bump

+1

Excellent and worth duping.bumping my post count.



I'm OK with this dupe.





 

In college, I was a member of Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship.  I used to shop for older folks that were on welfare.  Many of them could not get out of the house.  I used their food stamps to pay for the food.  I also drove a Mercedes.

we are fucked as a nation.

I work my ass off, recieve no assistance (because I work my ass off).  yet I do not live as easily as someone who takes goverment assistance.  And I make a decent wage!

Edit: Post 666. Deal with it.

What MLB team did you play for?  Just checkin', Stud.

A "Kool Story Brah" moment, I witnessed while at that same Wal-Mart. Watched some "hard working" recipients purchase multiple cases of bottled water. Next they empty all bottles in order to get the bottle refund money. Return inside to buy beer with said return money....WIN

I showed this article to the liberals at work, and regretted doing so.

"That's small potatoes"
"That's racist"
"Corporations are the real thieves in this country- we should get rid of their welfare first."

White liberal guilt excuses much, I find.

Fraud, coruption and cheating has become so ingrained in our culture and accepted as a way of everyday life that few care and these problems are largely ignored in our culture. In the meantime the workers keep paying the price.

Reporting these cases to state officials seldom results in any prosecutions/reforms.

I'll give you the answer a lib gave me when I commented on food stamp fraud:

"Who are YOU to look at what people put into their carts!"

Walmarts are scum magnets , nothing to see here move along

The thing that allows me to tolerate people like you describe is knowing that they will never compete with me for a job. As much of a burden as these people are to society, they aren't in my way. Professionally, they are transparent to me (except for the taxes taken out of my paycheck)

The harder I work and the more professional development I achieve, I differentiate myself from these people.
Granted, as we climb the ladder, the competition does get much more challenging, but the number of people we compete with decreases. The welfare mentality you observed is like a cancer in our society. Commitment to continuous personal development keeps us from catching it.

Answer...a person who subsidizes the items in said cart with every paycheck I earn.

I wonder what percent of Walmart's daily receipts are from the .government entitlement programs?

Pretty close to the answer I gave.  

"I'm one of the people paying for it, that's who!"

Considering that, because of EIC, WIC, and unemployment bennies, to say nothing of state aid,  and that, in effect, 40 % of people in America pay no taxes, I'd say a great deal of it does. It's both corporate and social welfare. The Money-Go-Round lives on!

And the more money you make, the more gets sucked from you. Can you say: "Lamprey"?

Ironically enough, I work for the federal gov. .....

I recall a similar situation from a poster here years ago, whose parking space at a shopping center right in front of his jewelry store was taken up- over two spaces- by an obese woman, who sat day after day eating ice cream cones, while seated in it, warning people away from her vehicle spread over the two parking spaces: "Donchu be scratchin' mah Leggusiss!"

My wife works at a medical clinic in a somewhat rural area.  She's told me stories of people abusing state welfare.  I think the worst is a woman who comes in every few weeks for a pregnancy test b/c she doesn't want to have to buy one.

Which Baker's? I might be able to guess the race instantly if you tell me which one...

dupity dupe dah.

Actually not the one on 24th, it was the one out on 132 and maple

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

I'm the guy paying for it our of my paycheck.  They get the benefit of my labor.  They get something I worked for.  I worked for it and got nothing.  America needs a flea and tick collar.

Wow, that is kinda surprising, but not really the more I think about it. My sister worked at the newer wally on 72nd and ran into this. A lot of crackers pulling the same racket, but with brand new F150's. FWIW, when I worked at the now defunct southroads Sears, all the illegal mexicans had loads of cash, no stamps/cards, and drove late 90's model suburbans, tahoes, and silverados.

I'd be willing to bet it's north of 35%, perhaps as much as 45%.  Of course, that's just from observing things in this area of my state, not sure about other places.

LC

Bump again...

The sad part is they could buy other items, and probally ebay them for 90% of retail and make more.

That's what I don't understand. The ignorant like to parrot that the "rich" don't pay enough taxes. Even if they are "only" paying 15% for capital gains taxes, they probably paid out a SHIT LOAD more than your average tax paying American. I guess some people believe that others should have to pay and endless stream of money into the system never having paid their "fair share" because they're rich!