Thread to Watch: When Liberal Worlds Collide

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

phantom power  (1000+ posts)        Tue Nov-29-11 03:15 PM
Original message
Waiting for midnight, hungry families on food stamps give Walmart 'enormous spike'

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 month.

http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/28/906951...

 

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2397307

I expect this thread to sink like a stone because it contains dueling realities for DUmbasses:

First, they love food stamps...out of professed love for the little people

Second, they loathe Wal-Mart...out of professed love of the little people

But what's a good liberal supposed to think when Wal-Mart not only accepts food stamps but also allows those "in need" to make those limited resources go further than--say--your average Whole Foods or hippy co-op?

This is where liberal economics fail. They only see economics in the context of management-labor class struggle. Decades of union/Marxist indoctrination have blinded them to the third, most important, leg of economics: the consumer. Management cannot pay any wage that the consumer is not willing meet via the prices charged to them.

DUmbasses want to crush Wal-Mart for dodging unionization, but the soundness of their employment decisions is based on their attractiveness to a broader customer base...which, BTW, allows them to feed more EBT-holders *AND* employ more people so EBT is not as needed.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Hey, it's not like they have to get up and go to work the next day or anything.

[FlaGator]

Hey, it's not like they have to get up and go to work the next day or anything.

Some do.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Some do.

Some people on foodstamps do, I'm not so sure the ones coming in for the midnight shoplifting are in that category.

[FlaGator]

Some people on foodstamps do, I'm not so sure the ones coming in for the midnight shoplifting are in that category.

I interpreted the article as indicating that these people were showing up at midnight because that was the earliest the funds on their EBT cards was available to them and they needed the food immediately.

While I am not trying to suggest that their aren't large numbers of slackers receiving assistance, I work with a charity that provides free food to people and many of the ones who I see are out of work house builders, framers and what have you. They are doing odd construction and remodeling jobs when they can get them but nothing steady. I suspect they if they have EBT cards they would by food at the first available opportunity.

I sure hope the housing market rebounds a little. It would go a long way to getting people back to work and out of walmart at midnight on the first

[diesel driver]

I worked as an overnight cashier at a Walmart, and I HATED the first of the month! 

2-3 minutes after midnight, all hell broke loose, as these "people" wheeled carts upon carts thru the checkout lines.  I had one lady PILED (yes, I said PILED) so much onto the conveyor belt, it wouldn't move!  I had to literally reach back about half-way down the belt, checking out items as I went, before it would move again!

Some had been in the store so long, their frozen foods had thawed!

UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE!

[jtyangel]

I simply don't get this. I have seen a full benefit ebt card. It was more then I used to budget for groceries when I was married and I could stock up then too. How is a family not able to survive on that and even have money left over. The problem with a lot of these stroke of midnight shoppers is they have either wasted it on junk food or sold the EBT $ off to pay for other things whether they were substances, alcohol, smokes, or in return for a favor someoen else did for them so they have nothing in the cupboards come midnight.

I hate the impression the midnight grocery run gives because it gives idiot liberals some idea these people don't get enough resources for food when in truth they are probably bartering it for other things or they are not using it wisely to begin with. A reasonably responsible person not only would not have to wait for midnight, but probably would have money left over into the next month with the amount given.

[jukin]

First, many of the EBT card people I see in the check out line (& I do look for them) have nice clothes and very expensive tennis shoes. Not all but about 40% in my informal survey. Guess getting that free food helps on luxuries you might not get.

Second, welcome to only a 50% fundamentally changed American 0conomy.

Third, if Barry gets a second term, things in 2011 are going to look pretty damn good.

[JohnnyReb]

First, many of the EBT card people I see in the check out line (& I do look for them) have nice clothes and very expensive tennis shoes. Not all but about 40% in my informal survey. Guess getting that free food helps on luxuries you might not get.

Second, welcome to only a 50% fundamentally changed American 0conomy.

Third, if Barry gets a second term, things in 2011 are going to look pretty damn good.

Oh yeah...I'm slow this morning. It took a minute for that to sink in.

[MrsSmith]

I simply don't get this. I have seen a full benefit ebt card. It was more then I used to budget for groceries when I was married and I could stock up then too. How is a family not able to survive on that and even have money left over. The problem with a lot of these stroke of midnight shoppers is they have either wasted it on junk food or sold the EBT $ off to pay for other things whether they were substances, alcohol, smokes, or in return for a favor someoen else did for them so they have nothing in the cupboards come midnight.

I hate the impression the midnight grocery run gives because it gives idiot liberals some idea these people don't get enough resources for food when in truth they are probably bartering it for other things or they are not using it wisely to begin with. A reasonably responsible person not only would not have to wait for midnight, but probably would have money left over into the next month with the amount given.

Yep.  My daughter is not someone I would always call "reasonably responsible," (though she is showing signs of pulling her head out finally).  Her foodstamps are for 3 people, 2 adults and a 2 year old.  She has been able to stretch those stamps into enough to provide groceries for a third adult and toddler for 2 months now.  She has asked me to pick up milk for them on a few occasions, but the last time I was there, her pantry was pretty well stocked with stuff that won't spoil.

Reeder knows that her family’s government assistance is deposited at exactly 4:12 a.m. on the first of the month. Using the debit card that holds their government assistance feels embarrassing at times, she said.

“I actually have my little technique I use. I take my palm of my hand and I kind of cover the card with the palm of my hand so that you can’t see the top of it when I’m swiping it, so the person behind me in line doesn’t, they don’t see food stamps,” Reeder said.

Of course, the DUmmies see this as a "crying face" item.  I see it as a positive...way too many people feel no shame for hauling in as much as they can from the rest of the country.

[BlueStateSaint]

Yep.  My daughter is not someone I would always call "reasonably responsible," (though she is showing signs of pulling her head out finally).  Her foodstamps are for 3 people, 2 adults and a 2 year old.  She has been able to stretch those stamps into enough to provide groceries for a third adult and toddler for 2 months now.  She has asked me to pick up milk for them on a few occasions, but the last time I was there, her pantry was pretty well stocked with stuff that won't spoil.

Of course, the DUmmies see this as a "crying face" item.  I see it as a positive...way too many people feel no shame for hauling in as much as they can from the rest of the country.

H5 for both.

[Karin]

Liberal worlds collide all the time, don't they?  It's the Liberal Poker game, where one thing out-trumps another, but the rules change daily.  I love to watch them do this dance with each other, trying to figure out which rule applies today.  It usually results in a hair-pulling squabble. 

[DumbAss Tanker]

Liberal worlds collide all the time, don't they?  It's the Liberal Poker game, where one thing out-trumps another, but the rules change daily.  I love to watch them do this dance with each other, trying to figure out which rule applies today.  It usually results in a hair-pulling squabble. 

They always seem to come together on the idea that it can all be fixed by taxing the productive 53% more heavily, strangely enough.