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Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede[W:236]

Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

Summerwind said:
Failing to recognize the historical effect Walmart has had on people needing welfare and subsidies in a reflection on you, not me.
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I've failed to recognize nothing. It takes two to tango. The public is effectively voting for Walmart by shopping there. Hating exclusively on Walmart is like hating Congress while failing to recognize that Americans reelect somewhere around 90% of its encumbents. Cognitive dissonance, anyone?

Even more amazing is that this sort of error is exactly what a lot of demand-side liberals are vocally advocating in economics discussions. Government should stimulate the economy by pumping cash toward the poor, which they say makes them better off while boosting demand, which is the wellspring of all good economic things.

And then this news comes out and they not only get pissed, but they get pissed at Walmart! Unreal.
 
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Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

Neomalthusian said:
I've failed to recognize nothing. It takes two to tango. The public is effectively voting for Walmart by shopping there. Hating exclusively on Walmart is like hating Congress while failing to recognize that Americans reelect somewhere around 90% of its encumbents. Cognitive dissonance, anyone?
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You Ass-U-med that there is exclusive hate. First of all it isn't exclusive, and second of all it isn't hate. Since you do such a poor job of representing my position, please don't do it.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

Summerwind said:
You Ass-U-med that there is exclusive hate. First of all it isn't exclusive, and second of all it isn't hate. Since you do such a poor job of representing my position, please don't do it.
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You're backpedaling now.

Summerwind said:
Haven't you learned yet, it's never a corporation's fault, it's ALWAYS either the government or the little people or both. Never our corporate overlords.
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Summerwind said:
However I do have to say that my schadenfreude is all lit up and glittering just knowing that WalMart is going to get screwed on those balances. If it's REAL bad, then it indicates that associates (employees) as well as customers must have spread the word pretty quickly. More power to 'em, I say, WalMart deserves to be screwed by both.
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It's an inconsistent position to want Walmart to be screwed over without therefore wanting its employees and its customers to be screwed over by extension. They're all engaging in business with one another regularly. Similarly, it is inconsistent to despise Walmart for being a cost-cutter when that's precisely what its shoppers are doing by walking in the door.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

Neomalthusian said:
You're backpedaling now.





It's an inconsistent position to want Walmart to be screwed over without therefore wanting its employees and its customers to be screwed over by extension. They're all engaging in business with one another regularly. Similarly, it is inconsistent to despise Walmart for being a cost-cutter when that's precisely what its shoppers are doing by walking in the door.
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By it's own nature, schadenfreude lacks consistency, fairness, or anything else. Hence why I prefaced my remarks thusly.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

apdst said:
Those people stole YOUR money. They're totally to blame.
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They are not. They were doing what desperate people do especially when given an opportunity to do so. WalMart provided them with that opportunity. WalMart bears a majority of the blame here.

They could have done exactly what other stores did do, cut them off. The stores in my area put up signs saying they were sorry but they could not accept EBT. Funny, there was no riot or anything here.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

roguenuke said:
They are not. They were doing what desperate people do especially when given an opportunity to do so. WalMart provided them with that opportunity. WalMart bears a majority of the blame here.

They could have done exactly what other stores did do, cut them off. The stores in my area put up signs saying they were sorry but they could not accept EBT. Funny, there was no riot or anything here.
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OMG! Didn't long to through the victim card down.

People on welfare aren't desperate and what these people did is nothing less than pure greed. They knew damn good and well they had a limit on their EBT card. This is theft.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

BWG said:
(To the bolded) Exactly. It was only for two hours (yes, I know they didn't know that at the beginning), but even if it had lasted longer no one was going to starve.

And why did the store manager have to call corporate? In any business, other than a two-bit operation, the store manager should have had the authority and competency to make the decision to temporarily suspend the use of the cards.

This doesn't excuse the people who abused the situation, they knew that what they were doing was wrong.
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Oh, the people did know what they were doing was wrong, but desperate people do desperate things.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

apdst said:
OMG! Didn't long to through the victim card down.

People on welfare aren't desperate and what these people did is nothing less than pure greed. They knew damn good and well they had a limit on their EBT card. This is theft.
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And WalMart knew they had limits on their EBTs as well. Yet they allowed them to continue to spend. WalMart holds a huge part of the blame here.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

Huh, weird. Our Walmart didn't have this problem. When EBT was down, it was just down for about half the day. We didn't accept EBT until about 4PM, and even after that it was a $50 limit until close.

No riots, no run on food. Everyone in the store and on the phone was pretty civil about it.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

ToastyOats said:
Huh, weird. Our Walmart didn't have this problem. When EBT was down, it was just down for about half the day. We didn't accept EBT until about 4PM, and even after that it was a $50 limit until close.

No riots, no run on food. Everyone in the store and on the phone was pretty civil about it.
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Yes, I mentioned earlier that I was pretty sure this was the recommended course of action by EBT for any store in such situation.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

FederalRepublic said:
I guess they could just say no and let people starve to death. That's not terribly P.C., now is it?
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They should shut the systom down and let us exicute any resulting rioters. This removes the leaches, reduces spending, reduces the Democrat voting pool, gets rid of food stamps and helps lower the global population.

It would probably also lower crime and abortion, too.

Problem = solved.
 
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Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

roguenuke said:
And WalMart knew they had limits on their EBTs as well. Yet they allowed them to continue to spend. WalMart holds a huge part of the blame here.
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I think you meant to say "credit", not "blame". "Blame" implies someone did something wrong. Disallowing leaches to live off the tax payer is a good and right thing to do.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

Jerry said:
I think you meant to say "credit", not "blame". "Blame" implies someone did something wrong. Disallowing leaches to live off the tax payer is a good and right thing to do.
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This depends on how WalMart handles it. If they take responsibility for it and agree to cover the difference between what was spent by how much the limits were, then they deserve "credit". However, if they say "we're not paying, it is the taxpayers' responsibility", then they deserve "blame".
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

roguenuke said:
And WalMart knew they had limits on their EBTs as well. Yet they allowed them to continue to spend. WalMart holds a huge part of the blame here.
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How did WalMart know they had limits? Was there any indication of this? As I understand it, the limits apparently vanished @ 7 and returned at 9.

I would say that WalMart holds some responsibility for this, but that the people who knowingly abused a glitch in an electronic system are mostly responsible.

I mean...they HAD to know that the Gov hadn't just suddenly decided "**** it, let em buy as much as they want". Right? Or am I off track here.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

The Mark said:
How did WalMart know they had limits? Was there any indication of this? As I understand it, the limits apparently vanished @ 7 and returned at 9.

I would say that WalMart holds some responsibility for this, but that the people who knowingly abused a glitch in an electronic system are mostly responsible.

I mean...they HAD to know that the Gov hadn't just suddenly decided "**** it, let em buy as much as they want". Right? Or am I off track here.
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WalMart knows how the EBT system works. Everyone has limits on EBT. No exceptions. So yes, they knew there was something wrong with the situation and should not have allowed it to go on.

Heck, I'm normally a defender of WalMart because I actually like the place. But in this case, this was mainly their fault. They should have did what pretty much every other food store in the country did, either not allow EBT purchases until they verified the system was fixed or set up the limit of $50 that seems to be the standard (and a pretty reasonable amount). Instead, they chose something that caused a lot of purchases to be made that should not have been allowed. They probably figure that the food stamps program will pay them and the government won't hold them responsible.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

roguenuke said:
WalMart knows how the EBT system works. Everyone has limits on EBT. No exceptions. So yes, they knew there was something wrong with the situation and should not have allowed it to go on.

Heck, I'm normally a defender of WalMart because I actually like the place. But in this case, this was mainly their fault. They should have did what pretty much every other food store in the country did, either not allow EBT purchases until they verified the system was fixed or set up the limit of $50 that seems to be the standard (and a pretty reasonable amount). Instead, they chose something that caused a lot of purchases to be made that should not have been allowed. They probably figure that the food stamps program will pay them and the government won't hold them responsible.
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As I said, they're not blameless, by any means.

But neither are the people who went nuts purchasing stuff. They, also, know that EBT has limits. But they abused Wal-Mart's mistake anyway.

Oddly, this has reminded me that I passed a large pickup apparently belonging to Halliburton (or so the decals on the doors and tailgate said) on the way to work today. Not sure why it reminded me.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

Well, if the bank makes an error saying you have more money than you do, and you manage to spend the overage - you're on the hook. If the IRS sends you a larger return than you are entitled to - you're on the hook.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

clownboy said:
Well, if the bank makes an error saying you have more money than you do, and you manage to spend the overage - you're on the hook. If the IRS sends you a larger return than you are entitled to - you're on the hook.
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But these are poor people. We CAN'T make them stay on the hook. That's just....mean.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

The Mark said:
But these are poor people. We CAN'T make them stay on the hook. That's just....mean.
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Poor people experience bank and IRS errors in their favor too. Doesn't matter. What they did was a crime, albeit low level, but still theft. Hope they bought plenty of food with a long shelf life because they're not getting more money until they've paid back the unintended loan.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

clownboy said:
Poor people experience bank and IRS errors in their favor too. Doesn't matter. What they did was a crime, albeit low level, but still theft. Hope they bought plenty of food with a long shelf life because they're not getting more money until they've paid back the unintended loan.
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I think it depends on whether the EBT $50 emergency recommendation is a recommendation or a requirement. If the latter, then Walmart is clearly at most fault for not following the rules they should've known existed, and by one Walmart associate's telling of it here, some Walmart's do know the rule, and thereby willfully allowing the over-spending. If it is just a recommendation, then the blame and responsibility should be shared equally. 50% for each individual/family and 50% to Walmart.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

The Mark said:
As I said, they're not blameless, by any means.

But neither are the people who went nuts purchasing stuff. They, also, know that EBT has limits. But they abused Wal-Mart's mistake anyway.

Oddly, this has reminded me that I passed a large pickup apparently belonging to Halliburton (or so the decals on the doors and tailgate said) on the way to work today. Not sure why it reminded me.
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I didn't say that the people didn't hold some blame. I simply think that the difference between what was spent and what the balances were should be made up for by WalMart, not the people nor the taxpayers. The people on food stamps who went over their limits should still show $0 balance in their accounts because they knew they shouldn't have did this.

I see the people as figuring that if WalMart is allowing it, why shouldn't they take advantage. It's not right, but it also goes to the fact that food stamps don't pay for all the groceries for most of these families. So if they have an opportunity to get more from what they normally get, they will take advantage of it.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

roguenuke said:
This depends on how WalMart handles it. If they take responsibility for it and agree to cover the difference between what was spent by how much the limits were, then they deserve "credit". However, if they say "we're not paying, it is the taxpayers' responsibility", then they deserve "blame".
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Maybe Obama will pay for it....from his stash.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

Jerry said:
They should say "you're all deadbeat loosers who leach off the systom so were not accepting ebt anymore".
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Except then Walmart would go out of business. Which would be fine with me. Just makin' a point.
 
Re: Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

Summerwind said:
Except then Walmart would go out of business. Which would be fine with me. Just makin' a point.
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Well as I said we should just shut the whole thing down and exicute the rioters. Its a win/win.
 
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