Posted on 11/28/2011 1:37:21 PM PST by Nachum
At the stroke of midnight, a growing number of Americans are lining up at Walmart not to cash in on a holiday sale, but because they’re hungry. The increasing number of Americans relying on food stamps to survive the sluggish economic recovery has changed the way the largest retailer in the United States does business. Carol Johnston, Walmart’s senior vice president of store development, said that store managers have seen an “enormous spike” in the number of consumers shopping at midnight on the first of the month. That’s typically when those receiving federal food assistance have their accounts refilled each
(Excerpt) Read more at rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com ...
“That’s typically when those receiving federal food assistance have their accounts refilled”
and happens to be when I get paid.
I’m sure the story is meant to raise concern for those on food stamps ... but it tells another tale as well.
Too many people are too da... too stupid to buy groceries and budget it out so that they have enough for a month (or more) and don’t have to rush to friggin Wal Mart at midnight because they are too inept to plan.
I saw a nearly-identical story about a year-and-a-half ago (August, 2010).
Has anything changed, or did someone decide it was time to tug at heartstrings again?
by next week, americans will be starving in the streets, shivering on the sidewalks, and dying in emergency room parking lots because the mean, racist, millionaire loving, middle class eating republicans won't pass whatever reform nancy pelosi says is needed in order to save the planet.
This is the fourth time in the past few years the MS has run the same “Out of food, shopping at midnight story”
Don’t believe me, do a search right here at FR. I know I posted on all the previous threads
Kinda like Hollywood, the news media has NO new ideas for stories
Actually, when Wal Marts offers X Boxes half off plus a fifty dollar credit on top, that deal gets a lot of people into the stores. Who wants to over pay for a gift especially when you save over $200 bucks on one single item?
While I hesitate to be judgmental about these matters, there are single, widowed, and divorced parents with children who do not have two incomes and a young adult male in the household, like the couple described at the link. These people have it good, as they say.
The other couple in the article even have a dog!
Stand behind one of these recipients in the grocery line and you will know why they can't manage to last the month out.
By the way...who watches the kids while they shop at midnight?
We don’t need welfare. Corporate America already has coupons for groceries stores and for people who aren’t lazy, you can get 70-80% off your food bill if you use them. Sometimes, with store offers, you can get an entire shopping cart full of food for free.
This is horrific. I don’t think this is the sort of “spike” that the economy needs or wants. It’s like the “dead cat bounce” when after a stock tanks, losing nearly all its value, the stock will usually open up incrementally higher the next day. It’s not like there’s any interest in it, the “spike” is merely technical by nature, as if when you drop a dead cat from atop a 20-story building, you’re gonna get some movement out of it.
The first part of the month I bought enough food for that month. Meat was put in a freezer. Canned goods, peanut butter and other items were stored in the pantry.
My young son hated the crust of bread. When I made him peanut butter sandwiches without the crust for lunch I ate the crust for my lunch.
Somehow with no life insurance , after my first husband's death, I was able to save enough to buy my first home in 1975.
I worked part time, too.
I come from a long line of relatives who believe "where there is a will ....there is a way."
Ping
The kids are usually with them............
I bet 2/3 of these people are over-weight! They buy a lot of junk food. (and beer with their own $$$)
My daughter and her 2 kids just moved out. That made 5 in the house for 3 mnths. I bought all the groceries and was spending about $450 a month. Of course that was nothing but food, no extras, and we cook. I bet she spent $300 on sodas and snacks though, so that is where the extra costs come in.
Food stamps, or EBT cards?
Does anyone get the paper food stamps anymore? I though every state had switched to a card by now.
As do companies like Drake’s, Hostess, and Frito-Lay.
As do companies like Drake’s, Hostess, and Frito-Lay.
As do companies like Drake’s, Hostess, and Frito-Lay.
My guess is that they’re buying up the saleable commodities that they can get cash for. Then taking the cash for drugs. At least the ones that show up at midnight on the last day of the month. Most of the ones I see using EBT cards at Wally World are so damned fat, they couldn’t be starving. Only the druggies come out at night.
Two people and a child should be able to eat quite nicely on $170.00 a week if they stick to staples and real food
WHILE ON FOODSTAMPS!!!
I make what most would consider a good income, and I shop sales ALL the time. I spend about $225-$250 a month for 2 people. And I feel I eat pretty darn good.
Bacon or sausage and eggs for breakfast, maybe pancakes or homemade waffles w/ real maple syrup. A fair amount of beef and pork roasts (which I love). A handful of skillet dishes with ground beef. Minute steaks or round steaks.
I bought 1/2 a cow in the spring for $4 a lb.
$4 is expensive hamburger or chuck roast, but its real cheap porterhouse and sirloin.
I buy maple syrup by the gallon up in Wisconsin. $38 for a gallon vs $17 for a quart in the store. Tastes better too.
I've got lazy, worthless relatives who play the welfare system. They get food stamps AND rotate through the area food banks each month.
I shop by whats on sale and cook what I have on hand. (Most of the time I can eat what I want, because I already have on hand what I need. All bought on sale)
First I work to make the money. Then I work again, shopping the sales, to get the most of MY MONEY.
Of course, I guess you could say that "working" the handout system is work also.
well, now I know when to not go shopping at WalMart.
Sounds like some hellish mix of an OWS encampment, an illegal alien border crossing and the line outside the local welfare office, all rolled into on.
I read a story few weeks ago about the rationing of stamps back during depression, WW2. It was required to keep all the stamps in the book, could not be torn out before hand. Then you had to present your ID along with the stamps at the cashier. That is how they prevented fraud.
Now they have EBT cards that my gosh, even work in Casino’s.
There are state programs where the kids can get breakfast and lunch at school for free.
There are 30 days in a month x 3 meals a day= 90 meals per person, per month.
5 days a week in school x 4 weeks a month= 20 days a month x 2 meals= 40 meals per person, per month, free from school
At the buffet?
Excellent question. An appalling number have the kids with them, usually inadequately dressed for the weather. Some are undoubtedly home alone.
Saw this story this a.m. The hungry couple was using a smart phone to check when their card was funded for the month. Wonder how much the cell service monthly charge cost and how much food it would buy?
I have a friend that has a full time job, but still can’t always feed his family after bills, so he gets food stamps for his wife and 2 kids. They get $467 a month, paid to their EBT card on the 15th. They budget as best they can, but food is getting more and more expensive. I lend him money when I can so his kids can eat.
And they come in at midnight huh?
More likely that the folks who bought them at 25cents on the dollar are ensuring that they get everything off the card before it gets turned off, or while they can still find and beat down the seller.
Heard today the DNC are not going for the white voters who work but the elitists, artists, media, hollywood and the impoverished ethnic groups blacks and hispanics who are on public assitance, welfare, foodstamps and extended unemployment. SO EVERYTIME YOU HEAR THE LIAR AND CHIEF TALK ABOUT HELPING THE MIDDLECLASS............
Ok, so why doesn’t the guy find a job flipping burgers down on the corner rather than and hour and a half away? There are closer jobs he could find. And why isn’t the gal working? Obviously they have some sort of child care since they don’t have the kid with them at midnight. Why does it take both of them to shop when one could be home with the baby and save having to pay a sitter? That’s money down the drain. If there is a sitter, then the woman can get a job.
And feeding a dog? No, if you can’t feed your kid, you don’t need the dog. Sorry, but I’m not believing this. Someone is lying or is just too lazy to take responsiblity for themselves.
Besides, if you have to make the budget last the whole month, then you don’t shop at midnight on the first. You search the grocery circular every week to get the sales. Then you schedule your trips to hit the soon to expire markdowns. What are they doing buying bacon? Bacon is expen$ive. Granted, tortillas aren’t expensive but they can be made at home for nearly nothing and are way better than store bought. If this is the mentality that they’re using for other parts of their lives it’s no wonder they’re in this shape.
“... I don’t mean to be critical, but your son must not have been very hungry”.
I think you missed her point, oh8eleven. She didn’t want her son to feel like he was poor or in need. She selflessly ate the crust of the bread for her lunch so that her son could eat the sandwich they way he preferred. I had a great Aunt who was extremely poor. She would tell her family that she didn’t like the taste of meat but did like the fat. What she was doing was leaving the good protein for the children while eating the fat for herself. It’s what a good Mom does.
God bless you for that. Yes, there is a real food crisis. We know see it were we are too.
Yes, grocery prices are going up but there’s no way he’s budgeting the best he can. Don’t enable them by giving him money. Teach him to budget correctly.
To this day I hate powdered milk. Can't even stand the smell of it. I couldn't wait to get to the farm for real cow milk.
This story repeats practically every month. I saw it a few times this past year.
Build all the FEMA camps around all the Chinamarts.
Pisses me off to be standing at the seafood counter to buy whatever is on sale when a pack of EBT card holders come in and get $30 worth of crab legs each. (I see them “pay” at the register).
You are obviously a very strong, independent, and intelligent Mom, Lysie. I can only imagine your now grown son is in awe of what you have accomplished.
These folks could be eating very well ALL month IF they used coupons. My food budget is miniscule because of coupons. Okay, I have a new eating system where I am losing weight by going to the buffets but I also use coupons at the buffets as well. For just a little eight bucks and a coupon, one can fill up at Golden Corral.
They bought a brand name prepackaged string cheese instead of cutting up a cheaper hunk of cheese.
They bought individual containers of yogurt instead of either a large carton or making it at home. It takes all of one brain cell to make and no special ingredients, not even special starter.
That jar of Vlasic pickles is pricey. I haven’t bought Vlasic in years.
Blue Chee$e? Really?
They could have saved more money getting the Great Value noodles in the bag rather than the boxed name brand.
There’s a $touffer’s box of something in their nice looking kitchen. Also in their kitchen are nice salt and pepper shakers, a new something appliance and maybe a microwave. Ok, so they have an old crockpot which is the exact model I’m using tonight for chili so I know it’s from about the 80s. So, maybe those s&p shakers and the white appliance were gifts but they aren’t hurting by a long shot and they’re clueless on budgeting.
When I was a kid we ate wood and rocks for breakfast.
(OK, that was an out-and-out lie. My father was a successful businessman, and I ditched school for lunch so I could have Filet Mignon)
I need to learn to be more coupon conscious myself.
Their house burned 2 years ago. Before her husband went to jail, he worked in a factory making 12 something an hour. Stopped by over the weekend, noticed they have satellite tv, a 47ish" flat screen tv, 2 pc's (one with touchscreen capabilities) and 2 lap tops, plus hs internet.
While hubby's in jail, he needs blood pressure medication. Before he went in, it cost them $30 a month. Now they have to buy it through the jail at $100. She was whinning about the cost and how she couldn't afford it. I was going to help out and buy it, until one of the daughters was on Facebook bragging about the matching tatoos her and her sister got.
Family doesn't have money for dads meds, but there's money for tats.
By the way, I'm the one they call "the rich cousin". I make WELL OVER $12 an hour, and usually work 50-60 hours a week. My cousin is unemployed getting $100 a week from the state and complains about having to go to job training. She has every excuse why she can't make it to work or training, but has no reasons why she has to work.
My cell phone is the most basic phone I can get. I finally got my second computer, after my first one bit the dust after 10 years (and it was a business machine that came off lease). Still haven't bought a flat screen tv, though I've been looking at 32" (it'll fit in the entertainment center).
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