Neighbors Use Food Stamps. Not Costco

New York Times ^ | May 12, 2009 | Jim Dwyer

[reaganaut1]

This October, when Costco, the big warehouse chain, opens its first Manhattan store, it will occupy a brand new mall along the East River Drive at 116th Street that has been developed with $55 million in tax-free bonds and grants. The company will be eligible for millions of dollars in tax credits for creating new jobs.

But there’s one kind of government money Costco won’t take: food stamps.

That policy effectively cuts off more than 30,000 of its immediate neighbors in East Harlem, who receive food stamps. Throughout the city, 1.4 million people got them in April, an increase of 80 percent since 2002, city officials said. Most of the recipients have jobs, but their wages are so low that they qualify for the food stamps, now issued in the form of debit cards.

Even if those neighbors don’t get to shop at the store and take advantage of bulk food purchases, they will have plenty of chances to see — and hear — a critical part of the company’s warehouse operations: Costco just won special permission for its tractor-trailers to drive on residential streets in East Harlem between midnight and 5 a.m. to make deliveries.

“You’re moving to a neighborhood with thousands of people on food stamps, and you don’t accept food stamps, and you want to drive on their streets all night to deliver something they can’t buy?” said Viveca Diaz, an East Harlem resident who has objected to the delivery schedule.

So far, executives of Costco have made no public statements about why its stores — with the exception of one in Puerto Rico — will not take food stamps. They did not reply to four requests for comment. Many other big chains, including Wal-Mart, Whole Foods, B.J.’s and Sam’s Club, do take them.

[reaganaut1]

What the Times thinks is a big problem -- a store that doesn't take food stamps. It could be that Costco does not want lots of food stamp recipients in their stores, though they dare not say it.

[ansel12]

Plus if you are a careful shopper like me you can’t save any money at Costco, or Sam’s Club.

[goodnesswins]

EXACTLY....Costco is NOT a place for food stamp shopping....unless of course you abuse the food stamp program.

[SoCalPol]

Food Stamp Ping

[riri]

I’ve read that the average income of a Walamrt shopper is, say, 35k and the average income of a Costco shopper is about 70k.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

This doesn’t surprise me. Costco supports leftist causes, so it makes sense it doesn’t want the riff-raff in their store. Notice the tone of the NY Times in agreement. That’s why liberals hate Wal-Mart because everyday people shop there and not the elites.

[yldstrk]

you can’t get anything in there with food stamps probably....it’s geared to people who are buying for the long term not daily shopping

[I see my hands]

To: Viveca Diaz

The streets belong to the taxpayers not the tax takers. No one wants to live next to the tracks.. good motivation for betterment.

Maybe the povs should put in an application at Costco if they need more cash.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

East River Drive and 116th Street is pretty much Harlem.

I live in a leafy suburb and you see freeloaders (section 8) using welfare debit cards at high end grocery stores all the time, the kind where half the customers wouldn’t caught dead in Costco. Excuse me, did I call them freeloaders? I meant to say deadbeats.

[WellyP]

No food stamps = a lot less shop lifting!

[ArtyFO]

Er, I hear that the Costco store will soon be inundated with hundreds of “customers” who will fill their buggies with perishable food and take it to the checkout counters where they will go through checkout loading all the stuff in bags and when presented with the sum to pay, they will offer food stamps. Of course when told that Costco doesn’t accept food stamps, they will simply walk off leaving the stuff where it lays, requiring several staff to put the stuff back in the shelves and cabinets. Al Sharpton will lead this buying spree.

[chris_bdba]

We don’t have any Costcos around here so I didn’t know this. How nice it would be to have somewhere that you could stop on the 1st and not be over run with the Foodstamp crowd!

[I see my hands]

Costco is a place where povs can tank up on food samples keeping their dole warm and undisturbed pressed against their fat asses.

[2ndDivisionVet]

The new terminology is underhoused, non-employment-seeking fermented beverage consumers. Please make a note of it.

[muawiyah]

When COSTCO starts running tractor-trailers through residential streets in the wee hours of the morning they may find a problem worse than shoplifting.

[I see my hands]

Good deal for Costco. Fiddy clams for a membership which is terminated after it's first use is likely more than than the cost of the food that will perish and be given to shelters as it would have anyway.

[Vinnie]

They don’t take checks either.

I like Costco. The one warehouse I shop at.
Their merchandise, esp. food, produce, meats are several cuts above Sam’s, BJ’s, etc Even better than the local Krogers.

[Cheetahcat]

“Er, I hear that the Costco store will soon be inundated with hundreds of “customers” who will fill their buggies with perishable food and take it to the checkout counters where they will go through checkout loading all the stuff in bags and when presented with the sum to pay, they will offer food stamps. Of course when told that Costco doesn’t accept food stamps, they will simply walk off leaving the stuff where it lays, requiring several staff to put the stuff back in the shelves and cabinets. Al Sharpton will lead this buying spree.”

Then he should be made to pay damages for what reason we are constantly cowered by 13% of the population I cannot fathom.

[JMS]

You can’t get in without a Costco card

[nascarnation]

1.4 million peeps in NYC on food stamps.
Un-freaking-believable and definitely Baraq’s fault.