Yeah but don’t you just hate it when you’re checking out at the grocery store and the person in front of you has a designer very expense purse- one that I can’t afford and then buying shrimp with their food stamps and then they go get into their new escalade! Hmmm. I was that person in line watching! I want my guns and I don’t use food stamps.
This a cut and paste of an actual comment from a social network string I read last weekend.
This is what I call “the grocery store anecdotal story.” It is used to explain one’s disapproval of “something.” It has a very predictable structure.
First, the scrutinizing of items in the check out line. It goes like this:
…and she bought lobster and steak with her food stamps.
Other variations include shrimp, or more descriptive filet mignon, t-bone, or the buggy full of steaks. My personal favorite is the “buggy full” remark. It is most likely to occur on holidays. Usually, followed by, “…I can’t even afford THAT!”
….you should have seen her food choices. Frozen dinners. Coke colas. Little Debbie’s cakes. She should have bought brown rice, beans and some vegetables to cook REAL FOOD. She was buying alcohol. I thought you couldn’t buy alcohol on food stamps.
Next, are remarks about personal possessions and appearance.
…. how could she afford a manicure?
…she was wearing a designer dress and had a designer handbag.
That is followed by the, “how can she afford that!” comment.
…she was just squawking away on a new iPhone.
Or a variation on this is spoken in hushed tones,
…and she’s talking on one of those free Obama phones!
Of course, a last bit of evidence that is suppose to make this anecdotal story more believable.
…and she pushed her buggy out into the parking lot and loaded up an Escalade with all those groceries and her child and drove off
Variations on the type of vehicle include a Mercedes or Lexus. Older people will use a Cadillac in the story, indicating the storyteller has been telling this story since the Reagan era.
It concludes with the taxes rant. The person ranting will confuse the debt and the deficit. This is followed by a tender remark about their children’s future.
I am constantly amazed by the ‘grocery store’ anecdotal story.
Really, it very difficult for any one of us to tell exactly HOW someone is financing their food purchases because it is mostly done by debit card. I wonder if these story tellers directly ask women in the check out line if they are on food assistance.
How completely classless it is to be so nosy as to investigate the grocery store purchases of a complete stranger. I guess frozen dinners help the storyteller strengthen the image laziness. Some people just have bad diets. The alcohol remark reinforces the belief that recipients of assistance are all frauds.
There are people out there that do take pride in their appearance. I wonder what exactly is appropriate attire and accessories for a woman on food assistance. An Obama phone? I wonder how to identify one.
It takes real huevos to follow a complete stranger into a parking lot to find out what they drive.
I just want to ask these storytellers, “What was the one initial thing that made you know without a doubt that the woman in your story was on food assistance?”
Haters gonna hate.
Re: “Really, it very difficult for any one of us to tell exactly HOW someone is financing their food purchases because it is mostly done by debit card.”
I guess you haven’t been to the supermarkets I go to.
Every so often, I see people paying with some sort of paper certificates, and sometimes they segregate their orders into stuff for which the certificates are used to pay for, and stuff they pay cash for.
Why do I notice this? Because I’m behind them in line! I notice all sorts of stuff about anybody ahead of me, and I assume everybody behind ME is doing the same about me, especially if I’m taking time groping in my pocket for those pennies I was sure were there.
And the noticing of the whatever certificates are being used is re-enforced if I’d already rolled my eyes because the person ahead of me in line had haggled about such-and-such a coupon should really apply to THIS size box of the same product …. When, after that, the person whips out a certificate, I feel rightly ashamed that I was getting all impatient over trivialities when they had hungry mouths to feed.
So there. That’s the general shape of my grocery store anecdotes. They’re generally born of the impatience that so many of us feel when standing in a line. You’re trying to tell us you’ve never experienced that?
(And I generally make no judgements on a person’s wealth by what they wear. At my richest, I’ve worn t-shirts and jeans and generic sneakers. And I’ve worn pin-striped suits when dead broke.)
Food stamps use debit cards. Are the certificates from WIC?
I was a check out clerk in a major supermarket. The paper certificates are WIC (Women, Infants and Children). They are only good for a certain amount of money on VERY specific sizes of VERY specific items, mainly bread, milk, cereal, beans and cheese. Also baby food and formula. It is sometimes a hassle because the certificate has to be keyed into the register in a special code and the scanner will only accept the exact type and size of the item. Often there is extra time taken for going back to exchange something for others. But nobody buys junk food, soda, shrimp or candy with WIC.
EBT cards are used identically with credit/debit cards. Unless you see the register tape you cannot tell what is being paid for with “food stamps” or cash. The register separates out what is eligiible for SNAP (actual edible food items) and what is paid in cash (e.g. soap, paper products, hot food, cigarettes or alcohol). An EBT card may also have cash benefits on it such as child support or TANF which can be used to pay for anything)
Poor old Bill Clinton thought that he had forever killed the welfare albatross that had been hung around the Democrats necks back in 1999. But he didn’t do anything to food stamps or WIC because they were such minor programs and they were agricultural subsidies, not welfare. Little did he suspect that the R’s would not rest until they had taken away EVERYTHING.
I don’t know where the certificates are from. The ones I see most frequently remind me of a checkbook, bound at the left edge.
Other people produce things that have carbons and that require them to write on them.
Perhaps this is some other form of assistance that isn’t confined to food.
Whatever. Since I’ve just been laid off (last Friday) I may wind up knowing more about this as time goes by. I’ve set it up with NY State at their website to get whatever unemployment comp I might get deposited directly into my checking account. So, in my case, it’ll be my debit card — which is my default way of paying already.
(Hadn’t read response 3 when I entered the previous.)
Check the fees. They’re pretty high on the unemployment debit cards.
Yeah, we used food stamps when I was a kid, the real kind, that you had to tear out of a book. We bought stuff, mom would send us to the store, she didn’t come with us. We would buy milk and bread and hamburger. But mom also taught us how to shoplift steaks and lunchmeat, thin things.
I never knew if people were looking at me because we were using food stamps or because they knew we stole things.
its bs
all food stamps are now ebt
ebt cards are like debit cards and unless one is paying close attention, you cant tell what the person is using
I blow off these blow-hards with one simple fact: The bulk of your taxes are going to defense contractors and investment banks.
It’s a fact. The amount of your entire tax load – state, federal, transactions, etc. – that is earmarked for all social programs combined is less than the price of a latte’ at Starbucks. Look it up if you don’t believe me. Are you better than that person standing in line in front of you? Do you covet their FOOD? Do you feel entitled to self-righteous anger? Why?
Stop scapegoating your neighbors! You’ve been ROBBED, but not by the people you see around you.
I actually want my taxes to go to lower incomes. It’s the children that are most important and our treasure. With the investment. I also realize sadly majority of our taxes goes to Subsidies to large corporations, big oil, insurance companies, defense contracts, hospitals, and just this year Republicans whittled away at food stamps in Senate and then House has been working on cutting them even more in Farmbill where Foodstamos are provided. I was on WIC when I had my daughter, I lost my job when my community hospital closed and I was 7 months pregnant. That what it’s there for..right? and there was no no possible way to cheat it. The child was brought in and weighed and inspected and tested free of charge and exact needs on those coupon like slips. But I do know others that cheat Foodstamos by going thru shopping with another and then paying with dcard and then out in parking lot the other gives her cash. I know this because my daughter witness and heard them discussing it. She also was employed and earned much more than exceeded limit. My husband has same job possession. I don’t know how she gets alway with that one…there’ll always be bad apples taking advantage of something meant for needy. But it’s the Republicans, Corporate Welfare we need to worry about!!!
Does it ever occur to self-righteous douchebags out there who tut-tut those on SNAP who happen to wear decent clothes or drive a decent car that MAYBE they had those things BEFORE whatever happened in their financial lives drove them to public assistance?
Personally, my family of four is on SNAP and receives just enough to cover the first two weeks of our monthly grocery bill. I drive a Mustang convertible that is fully paid. It is in excellent shape. Should I sell it for a few thousand then have no vehicle to get to work or the grocery store before signing up for assistance? Or trade down to a junker that will slowly sap whatever remaining funds my family has from our part-time jobs on repairs and maintenance?
The asshats who frown upon public assistance fail to grasp that this aid is available to ALL of us and paid for by ALL of us. I have no guilt from our SNAP reliance because my wife and I spent the first twenty years of our lives fully-employed paying into the social services security net for this very reason.
Every time I hear this crap, I call the speaker a liar straight up. The empty faux outrage that follows is priceless. Then you press them on the details while every one is shifting uncomfortably on their feet but listening intently. The lie is laid bare by escalating volume. They eventually storm off. The sick joy I get out of this goes a long way to explain why judges always got damned pissed at me on cross examination.