Now Accepting Food Stamps: Starbucks

Starbucks is a very socially conscious corporation. It supports all sorts of different causes. Perhaps in the spirit of helping homeless OWS squatters, they decided to allow in a few food stamp customers....

reply to post by Miraj

I would see one or two people buying malt liquor or cheap beer

Are you sure? Unless the cashier was in on it, I think that if you were try and buy something like that, the card wouldn't accept it. My sister had a card when she got laid off, and when she bought her groceries, if there were any items which were non food (such as cleaning supplies, shampoo, or anything of that nature), it would separate those items, and the cashier would say how much cash payment she had to pay for those non food items. Maybe that's what you saw. If he bought one food item and a beer, his card would pay for the food, and he would pay the cash difference for the beer.....which, IMO, he shouldn't be buying anyway if he is so poor he needs food stamps for food.

Utterly ridiculous, people had to fight to gain the ability to use foostamps at farmers markets and to be able to buy food seeds/seedlings in order to grow their own. Now you can buy a 5$ cup of coffee? There are millions of middle class and lower class families who are unable to stretch their allotment to last a whole month and people are buying Starbucks coffee with them. Insane and wasteful. I hope they feel like trash every time they pass a poor skinny kid.

Just ridiculous!
Reminds me of a couple checking out in front of me when I was a struggling college student. They were buying tins of smoked oysters, crackers and some fine looking cheese and paid with food stamps. Must have been date night. I simply stocked up on mac n cheese, hot dogs, and ramen noodles. In the same town, I also saw a well dressed couple check out with three full carts of groceries, paid in food stamps, they most likely bought on the cheap for cash, then loaded up their shiny Lincoln Town Car and off they went.

The food stamp system has been corrupt for a long time. People selling their stamps for pennies on the dollar to get cash to by cigarettes or alcohol has always been a big problem.

How do you fix a program that seems well beyond repair and so ridden with fraud?

Originally posted by Miraj
reply to post by isyeye

 

That's hardly the worst thing I've seen people buying at starbucks with their food cards.

I used to go in the morning, and I would see one or two people buying malt liquor or cheap beer.

I can beat that!

I've seen them used to buy drugs! give the dealer the card and let them use what they want charging them .50 on the dollar. dealer uses $100 off EBT card to buy groceries FS recipient receives $50 worth of drugs in return.

Or they just sell the balance for straight cash. give someone $100 and they allow You to spend $200 off their EBT card.

I personally have never participated on either side of this but am aware of people that do regularly.

reply to post by StealthyKat


Yeah. I remember the cashiers got pretty flustered about it (mainly because the guy was a real creeper.)
I think it might be different here in Oregon, the system may allow for it. Beer shouldn't be on the list of things people can buy, but I think it is.

Originally posted by Cosmic4life
reply to post by isyeye

 

Hmmm sounds more like the government are subsidizing Starbucks by allowing this to happen.

And what kind of poor person wastes $5 on a Starbucks coffee when a trip to Walmart gets you a months supply for the same price ?

Cosmic..

My thoughts exactly, and more ghettos people can afford starbucks while my kids go without presents under the tree...life is grand.

I think this is a button pusher story. And Starbucks at the center- Oh that liberal place where liberals and commies all plot over fancy coffee drinks to plot their evil like the bolsheviks did in the coffee houses of old Russia.

You guys fall for that divisive crap?

You that jealous of a Starbucks? Tell me, have you checked out any of the menus at the White House parties lately? Or is it only your neighbor that you want to be jealous of and hate?

It's not common at all. In a few places they let a few CHEAP fast food places take food stamps so the HOMELESS can get some food because they have no way to store or cook it.

I know a lot of people on food stamps right now and they are running out of food at the end of the month. I had a preteen girl sigh and tell me that they never get 2nds because the food stamps just don't go that far anymore - and her parents? Both of them work as janitors even though he's was an auto mechanic for over 20 years.

I've been in CVS shopping late before when food stamps went on the cards and saw people lining up to get cereal and milk because they were HUNGRY and it was the only place open 24/7.

There's some problem that's being addressed- it's probably the fault of the Safeway register system not coding the items correctly, or it's not food stamps, it's cash snap benefits they are using in order to get money back. (Food stamps and welfare use the same cards. Some people get both, most don't.)

Food stamps don't pay for everything in most cases either- they are a supplement.

I don't want people judging what I buy because if they looked in MY buggy they might think I was insane, because I stockpile and coupon. The last trip I made to the store was steaks, panko, and parmesan cheese because I had coupons on all of them to make them about free. I didn't have a fresh veggie in my cart.

I am acutely aware that if it were not for so many people in my county getting food stamps that our few remaining grocery stores would probably have to shut DOWN. We used to have about 9 here. Now we are down to Walmart and Kroger with a couple of small independents at the edges of the county that don't carry crap.

I don't want to eat rice and beans 24/7. There's no doggone reason anyone should have to either, unless it was an earthquake or disaster zone or the zombie apocalypse.

The problem is there are no jobs. Oh there might be where you live, but there aren't any here- the ones I see are 10.00 an hour or less, with no benefits and/or part time. Even if you have an education or skill, you're still screwed. My husband was designing homes, businesses, and medical offices for 25 years and good at it.
Now he's unloading trucks. We had a good life and owe just a few thousand on our home- and now we have no health insurance and we're fighting to keep it.

Some people should look at their own purchases and count themselves lucky. I know taxes just suck but at least with food stamps and welfare it almost ALL goes back into the local community....to pay cashiers, delivery men, butchers, grocers, landlords.

It's not just Starbucks. I work at a convenience store and I see my share of EBT. Most of the people who use it there buy junk. I can understand once in a while, but some of these people come in daily to stock up on expensive junk food items. Other times, it's buying junk food on EBT and pulling out a wad of cash for beer and cigarettes.

I would love to qualify for food stamps. My hubby and I work our fannies off and sometimes, like this week, after paying bills, there is no money left for groceries. According to state guidelines, we earn too much. Then why am I feeding my family hot dogs, eggs, cheap mac and cheese? I am hanging on to the last few dollars to put gas in the truck for work. A far cry from my food stamp collecting cohorts who buy cigarettes several times a week, one who admitted that she never eats leftovers and throws away any uneaten food from a meal. Really? I'm helping pay for that food while my family suffers.

I'm growing a bit bitter I guess as I watch the way the world works. I know a lot of the people who get government aid aren't honest either. If I pretended my husband left us and he took on another address to go along with the charade, I could live in public aid luxury too. Maybe then, I could saunter on down to Starbucks.

reply to post by CREAM


Is all about profits and we are after all a capitalistic ridden nation, as long as the money flows for the few, screw the rest.

Sadly what got me the most is how prices will stay the same while Starbucks reap more profits on lower growing quality coffee.

This comes because the agreement of Starbuck with China that only Chinese grown coffee can be sold in China in the Starbucks stores.

BTW also Foldgers are investing millions on this coffee, something that kind of make me think the link between Foldgers and Starbucks.

They are the only two American corporations pouring millions of coffee growing in China.

reply to post by Komaratzi11


I really don't know why anyone is feeding their folks mac and cheese and such.
I actually find that some of the more expensive food.
It's good though when it's made right.

I've got a blog - I TRY to help people live and eat better on less money - believe me, I don't write it for the money - it doesn't earn any. it's www.wiresplice.com...

Around here no one can cook these days. Another problem I see is that everyone is brainwashed into thinking both people HAVE to work- some families might be better off if someone stays home and works for the family!

The homeless don't have places to cook so they buy junk that's easy to eat without cooking or needing refrigerating. They buy beer probably because they are miserable.