Have you ever experienced negative comments when you tried to use your food stamp (ebt) card at the store?

Question

I was just wondering about this because over the weekend, my hubby and I were at a local grocery store and this happened.

A woman was in front of us and she was complaining on her cell phone to someone about the chick in front of her taking forever because she had a cart-full of groceries and was paying with WIC checks and her food stamp card. She was saying some really ugly stuff. When we peered forward to look at the girl, I felt kind of sorry for her bc she was all by herself trying to deal with 2 other kids and she was pregnant. If someone was in the store with her, they weren't helping her up there in line. Now, I don't know what this girl's situation was....those kids may not have been her's...who knows in this day and age? Still, I thought it was really ugly for that woman directly in front of us to spout off like that. Even if she was aggitated, she could have kept the comments quiet until she got into her vehicle. I just thought the whole thing was ugly. The girl in front just flashed her a dirty look but never said anything. The cashier looked kind of embarrassed and was trying to check the girl out as quickly as possible. When the lady in front of us got up to the register, she told the cashier that "there should be a "separate line" for THEM who pay with THOSE THINGS bc they just jam up the line for others who pay normally." It just made for an uncomfortable situation.

I just wondered if anyone else has experienced anything like that. What did you do or say?

Answer 1

People are ignorant. In the first place WIC is not welfare and even middle class families can get WIC. I always get dirty looks. It makes me mad when people say "people on welfare love in when the first of the first of the month comes so they can go and cheat the govt". they have no idea how humiliating it is to use an EBT card.. yes, they look like food stamps but people know what they are.. cashiers give you dirty looks. so do other customers.  I was a single parent. I was in college full time, working part time, raising a disabled child alone with no child support while fighting for my disability. I used food stamps one time and a lady turned around and told another lady "if she would get off her lazy butt and go to work she wouldn't have to use those".. She's awfully dam n lucky I didn't punch her in the face..cause I was pissed.  I love to hear people say "it's my taxes paying for their food". they forget that "my taxes also pay for those stamps" . I always say that these people who judge you without knowing  your circumstances will one day be in those circumstances and then they will need food stamps and then they get the humiliation of hearing "lazy, stinking bums". can't wait

Answer 2

When I was first married and preganat with my first child, we were on WIC and I never did get any bad comments, and I never looked at the people behind me to see if they gave me dirty looks. The only time someone got upset was beacuse I went to the express checkout, because I only had about 2 gallons of milk, but the new cashier couldn't figure out how to do it, so the people behind me got upset (not my fault). But when my parents got divorced, my mother was raising 4 children alone, and when she would use food stamps, she said she always got dirty looks from people, and people would make comments about how she should be buying better things, not all that junk. (It was the list she was given that she could buy).

Answer 3

I was a cashier at target back in high school (4 years ago) and EBT cards are just like debit cards, but WIC checks were an absolute nightmare.  In fact, most of us never bothered learning how to do it because general procedure was to just call the manager over and have her do it.  and of course when u do that, u have to shut down ur lane and wait.  

Still, being a cashier, your job is to help ALL customers regardless.  That b$*ch in front of you complaining is an all too common customer.  They are extremely demanding and think EVERYONE is below them... and god forbid you ask them for their ID (seriously that was a terrifying thing to do)

I have come across it and all you really can do as a cashier is call the manager over and tell them to take the evil one to another lane will you take care of the civilized people ... and as a customer, you have a right to speak up... the same way she's complaining on her phone, pick up your phone, fake a call and trash her and make her feel terrible in front of the cashier and the poor girl (usually managers can't do anything about that, and if she turns around and says something to you, guess wat that's verbal assault/harassment)

It's embarrassing that some people can be so cruel in this day and age ... especially women among each other.  We should be helping each other in this world, not bringing each other down.  

Answer 4

Some fat guy said that to my uncle with cancer, I got p.oed and cursed him out.

My uncle is not married, he can not get a job because of his cancer and doesn't get money for his disability for another month.

Sometimes people just don't THINK before they start talking c**p.

I'm glad I cursed the fatty out, he deserved it, my uncle has been in chemo therapy for a long time and he has lost all of his hair and is in a wheel chair because the chemo makes him weak, NOBODY is going to mess with him

Answer 5

As a former cashier I can tell you that swiping an EBT card takes the same amount of time that swiping a credit or debit card takes. Yes, this woman was completely rude and out of line and showed FAR less class than the woman using the EBT card. My question is , why didn't you say something? A simple "I'd rather use an EBT card than prove myself classless by behaving like you are" might have shut her up.

Answer 6

well maybe you should of showed the cell phoner some love and told her to chill her fat ghetto trap out and wait like normal paying customers this aint the stop n go.  

Answer 7

It would be nice to think there is a special h**l for jerks that try to humiliate those who are down on their luck.

Meanwhile, Those jerks need to be slapped-down in their lifetimes, one way or another.

Answer 8

Personally I have never got disrespected like that, but I don't doubt that I have gotten bad looks and just didn't realize it.

But if I was you or the lady using them, I would have said something to her because people like her need to be told and they need to know what its like to be embarrassed! There are lots of things that hold lines up and as a customer you just have to deal with it.

Answer 9

When I was a kid, my mother and father where going through some ruff times and we had to receive assistance for a short period of time. There was some kids that I was in school with who was standing behind me that saw me with the card. I was so embarrassed when I had to pull it out and use it. They did make some comments, and even told some of the kids at school what they'd saw. But little did they know my brothers and I was waiting for them after school, and we beat the h**l out of them one by one. I never had a problem with them talking noise about our "Star Card" (that's' what was called in Texas) again.

h**l, with the price of food and gas today, I wish everyone was eligible for those cards, that way no one goes hungry.