Now THAT'S what I call bargain shopping!

From what I've heard and read WalMart is simply going to bite the bullet on this one and take the hit. They after all are the ones who said go through with it knowing full well the system was broke. Other companies refused to take any EBT cards until things were working again.

Here's a current link: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/walmart-food-stamp-shopping-spree-choice/story?id=20579980

Have to find the news reports again but they all reported that the card when swiped approved on 0.00 balances. Once everyone saw that they knew it was unlimited shopping spree time.

I know that most of those people were looking to get over. But I can relate a bit to their actions. The Food Stamp money is usually just barely enough to get through a month. Many Food Stamp users have nearly bare cupboards in the last week of the month.

Actually "B" is a possibility but they wouldn't do it all at once.

Let's say that they determine that Mrs. Smith had $180 actually left on her account and she spent $320 in this incident. The wouldn't simply deduct $140 on the next month account load, but they might very well load $20 less each of the next 7 months (fr example)

I don't know about y'all but last time I had a bank error in my favor I collected my $200 and never looked back.

I still think that Walmart will be looking to be reimbursed. Its hard for a store to shut down EBT or implement a $50 limit on a large amount of people. And many of them were already in the store. It seems a large amount of the business in those Walmarts comes from EBT users.

You say. I just called my local (CalFRESH) hotline and was in the queue to speak to a representative immediately.

In any event, unless you find out for sure, what's the reasonable way to proceed:
(1) Buy what you normally buy and need.
(2) Buy as much stuff as you can possibly carry from the store.

More to the point, if you do (2), does this suggest you accept the lack of limit as a normal thing, or that it is a temporary thing that you must hasten to take advantage of?

I used a cash machine once and got double the amount I asked for. Party time!!

well lucky you. but there is no crisis at the moment.

But a bank pocketing $50 from you in error would not be so understandable, methinks.

My understanding is it is up to $200 per person but most people don't get that much. Also, I believe that $200 includes a bit extra originally from the stimulus but which got extended in 2011 for two years as part of the budget agreement over the Bush tax cuts being mostly kept in place. The max will probably drop at the end of this year when that bill expires.

I found this: http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/avg-monthly-food-stamp-benefits/

That says the average award is $133 which would be $1.47 per meal which really is just enough to keep people alive in the US.

Take a look at some of the people on the spending spree - they couldn't tell you how it feels to not eat for ten minutes. Just sayin'

I will say this - Walmart played it smart! If they would have shut it down, people would riot and trash the store. But now they can back-track and see who was milking the system and turn them in.

I also lol'd @ Paladin's "just call the hotline" comment. I have waited over 2.5 hours to speak to someone. Just put the speakerphone on and clean the house.....hopefully they'll get around to answering before they close for the day. Mewa's right. You only use that number if you want to check your balance and don't have internet access.

The poorer someone is the fatter they get is a good general rule. Junk food is just the cheapest way to get the most calories if the least healthy option where was healthy food almost always costs considerably more. I'm not saying they couldn't make healthier choices if they really wanted to but the poor usually do have an additional hurdle of not having a car so they have to shop at the closest store, can't shop around as easily, and when they do shop they generally can only get what they can carry in two hands per trip because of the need to either walk home with it or carry it on the bus with them. Guess what the corner store normally sells in neighborhoods with really low rent? It's not heirloom tomatoes and micro greens.

"Dear Customer, We noticed that on March 14th, 2013 at 02:42:16pm you requested a withdrawal of $200 from our automated teller machine at the branch located at 2219 Ludlow Street, and were issued $400 in error by the machine. We have taken the liberty of deducting from your account the additional $200 you were dispensed so that your bank balance is correct. Happy to be of service, Your Bank."

"Nobody calls that line. It's too busy."

Look, it's clear from the shopping spree that people went on that they understood that this was a mistake that would soon be corrected and were hurrying to take advantage of it. It's probably too much to ask people on welfare to exercise reason and prudence; they're on welfare for a reason, after all! But no one should have the expectation of free stuff, so, like I said, simply deduct the overage from future benefits.

I'm not happy when it happens, but it's a Chance we all take.

And if you found out they knew and didn't tell you?

The vast, vast majority of people on food stamps did not take advantage of this error as it was only in one ghetto location in one state despite the error effecting people in 17 states. I'd say the over all record is pretty good and it is unfair of you to try to pretend all of them are scumbags simply because 0.00WHATEVER of them turned out to be scum. The ones who committed fraud will get caught and dealt with I am sure but you're making a hasty generalization to condemn them all for the actions of a few.

Are you kidding me? I keep my money right in front of me. I'd know if they tried to take anything. Only time I have to pay the banker is if I get elected chairman of the board, but then I have to pay EVERYONE $50 and it goes to him, not the bank so it doesn't really count.

Oh, I looked it up and this is what I found about the punishment for food stamps fraud:

Now, I don't know what (if anything) these people will eventually get charged with, maybe nothing and they just take the balance out of future benefits amounts, or then again maybe it might actually qualify as intentional benefits fraud. It will be interesting to see what is eventually done.

yeah. sorry, it's true.

agreed.

wow.

That's probably what they will end up doing. It's not going to be counted as fraud. That's reserved for the folks who sell their food stamps for cash or drugs, IIRC.

Yeah, why waste time doing the honest thing and call the Hotline as Paladin suggested when your credit limit has been removed and there is a store to be looted? Who has time to sit on hold when WalMart is running out of goodies?

Or maybe I'm just naive to expect people to be honest and do the right thing.

What I'm getting at is that you probably hold the bank to a higher standard than you hold yourself. If the bank makes a $50 error in your favor, you keep it. If the situation were reversed, I expect you'd be quite angry about it.

Not necessarily everywhere or at all times.

My point is these people chose to exploit an obvious fault in the system. And, no doubt, many of them will use the "I didn't know" or "Nobody stopped me" defense afterward. AS IF one's good and decent behavior were the responsibility of others to police.

Well, you scoff when I say they should check out something too good to be true.

EVEN IF you can't get through on the hotline, common sense will tell you that NO LIMIT on your food stamp card is almost certainly a mistake. Where a reasonable and prudent person would think "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. Just because this card will let me go buy way more food than I need, doesn't mean I should. In the first place, it's more than I need. In the second, IF it is a mistake and I charge stuff, I might get stuck with the bill later." These people thought "Hot damn! No limit. Get as much stuff as I can before they fix it!!!" The latter clearly gives NO thought to the possible consequences of that action; it's entirely impulsive and self-indulgent.

And impulsive, self-indulgent choices are probably a big factor...well, I won't go there.

I certainly wouldn't count this as fraud. People didn't do any more than charge what the card allowed them to, after all. But since they chose to buy stuff, the cost for that should come out of their future benefits.

Bullshit.

They did it last week when switching over to a new system. I saw signs everywhere that EBT was down for the day.

All they had to do is put up signs saying EBT is down and refuse transactions.

The reason things got out of hand was once people realized that the system was broken and they were still able to get way more groceries then was possible not only did they capitalize on it they called up everyone they knew and told them.

People seem confused on the large amount of people. There wasn't a large amount of people until after everyone realized these particular Walmarts were still approving all EBT purchases.

Other stores from other companies (including other Walmart stores in the area) did not honor the EBT and refused purchases until the system came back up.

I don't know how things are done in your neck of the woods but a dirty banker is grounds for a ban if not a beat down.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/walmart-stuck-food-stamp-shopping-spree/story?id=20563982

It looks like Walmart will get stuck with most of the cost as there was a state policy on what retailers are supposed to do in the event of a system outage but Walmart didn't follow it. Sadly, this may mean the people don't get punished for their actions though Walmart is saying they are looking into their options. I would be nice to see the thieves held accountable in some way.

Edit: I see Zombie posted the same article three hours earlier.

You seem angry. Why is that?

Seriously though Paladin.

WRT how much of Walmart's business is done by people using EBT:

http://www.occasionalplanet.org/2012/11/29/the-waltons-and-walmart-a-fortune-built-on-food-stamps/

Now I don't know how reliable that source is but assuming their numbers are correct (and they don't seem too outrageous) than just food stamps and not counting welfare cash payments which also use the EBT card (but we can bet Walmart gets an equally huge slice of that pie as well) Walmart got $28.8 billion minimum (but possibly up to $45.6 billion) out of the food stamp program representing a low of 6.8% of Walmart's gross sales or a high of 10.17% of their gross sales. Not bad given that we've just counted food stamps and we could reasonably expect at least an equal amount from cash welfare spent with EBT cards so roughly between 13.6% to 22.32% of Walmart's business comes from welfare/food stamps sales.

Yes, I would call that a significant share like Mewa said.