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Quote:Wal-Mart (WMT -0.74%) stores in Springhill and Mansfield, La., saw a stampede and a shelf-clearing rush Saturday after a computer glitch for food stamp recipients led to benefit cards allowing unlimited purchases.
Police were called as entire shelves were being cleared out, until the glitch was fixed and low-income residents using the cards were no longer allowed to make purchases.
From news station KSLA:
"Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd confirms they were called in to help the employees at Wal-Mart because there were so many people clearing off the shelves. He says Wal-Mart was so packed, 'it was worse than any black Friday' that he's ever seen.
Lynd explained the cards weren't showing limits and they called corporate Wal-Mart, whose spokesman said to let the people use the cards anyway. From 7 to 9 p.m., people were loading up their carts, but when the cards began showing limits again around 9, one woman was detained because she rang up a bill of $700 and only had .49 on her card. She was held by police until corporate Wal-Mart said they wouldn't press charges if she left the food.
Lynd says at 9 p.m., when the cards came back online and it was announced over the loud speaker, people just left their carts full of food in the aisles and left."
No arrests were made.
Wow. Nothing like doing the right thing, right welfare recipients?[/quote]
http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post--fo...t-stampede
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There are losers amongst all classes of citizens, unfortunately.
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Absolutely stupid. The card purchases still get tracked. Chances are the people who took advantage of the glitch will either get kicked off the program for fraud or have their benefits cut until the balance is paid. At best, they got a shopping spree now at the expense of benefits for months to come.
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(10-14-2013, 10:42 AM)csrowan Wrote: Absolutely stupid. The card purchases still get tracked. Chances are the people who took advantage of the glitch will either get kicked off the program for fraud or have their benefits cut until the balance is paid. At best, they got a shopping spree now at the expense of benefits for months to come.
That would be my hope.
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(10-14-2013, 10:42 AM)csrowan Wrote: Absolutely stupid. The card purchases still get tracked. Chances are the people who took advantage of the glitch will either get kicked off the program for fraud or have their benefits cut until the balance is paid. At best, they got a shopping spree now at the expense of benefits for months to come.
That's what SHOULD happen. However, this is LA. The politicians know who voted them into office. I think that the politicians know that you don't smack the hand that feeds you.
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I think that the politicians aren't going to have anything to do with this. I think that the policies and procedures are already in place. You go over your limit because the machines weren't working properly, there's something specific that happens. You go over your limit by $500, and you only get $150/month, your social worker calls you in and says "you've got three chances to explain to me how you weren't trying to cheat, and the first three don't count."
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WalMart made the decision to let people use them, not knowing what they had on them. WalMart is also culpable for the financial damages.
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(10-14-2013, 02:53 PM)broadzilla Wrote: WalMart made the decision to let people use them, not knowing what they had on them. WalMart is also culpable for the financial damages.
Obviously a capitalist plot exploiting the poor.
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(10-14-2013, 02:53 PM)broadzilla Wrote: WalMart made the decision to let people use them, not knowing what they had on them. WalMart is also culpable for the financial damages.
Yup.
http://m.ksla.com/#!/newsDetail/23688829
According to the state, the retailer is on the hook for the overages.
The Department of Children and Family Services oversees those benefits, called SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
DCFS tells KSLA News 12 that no EBT card is ever limitless, and that when these outages happen, the retailer has a responsibility to implement emergency procedures. Those procedures include placing a phone call and verbally approving a spending limit for the customer. Trey Williams with DCFS says some retailers chose not to do that.
"These businesses are only reimbursed for the benefits on the card, and they are completely responsible. So if someone had 50 dollars on their card, and they spent 100, the retailer, in this case Walmart, would be on the hook for the other fifty.
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I revise my previous statement then. Stupid WalMart.
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It's not like Wally World can't afford to pay the overages. A drop in the bucket for them.
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No good deed goes unpunished.
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(10-14-2013, 04:42 PM)Scrapper Wrote: It's not like Wally World can't afford to pay the overages. A drop in the bucket for them.
You're absolutely right, but it still shows the integrity of the "you owe me" crowd. It would be interesting to know the percentage that went over as opposed to those with some integrity that simply knew how much they could spend. Besides, it will go in the loss column against wal marts taxes anyways.
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Serves them right...I have to put up with the poor fashion shows and photo shoots
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(10-14-2013, 04:59 PM)orygunluvr Wrote: (10-14-2013, 04:42 PM)Scrapper Wrote: It's not like Wally World can't afford to pay the overages. A drop in the bucket for them.
You're absolutely right, but it still shows the integrity of the "you owe me" crowd. It would be interesting to know the percentage that went over as opposed to those with some integrity that simply knew how much they could spend. Besides, it will go in the loss column against wal marts taxes anyways.
No, it has nothing to do with the "you owe me crowd," which I assume is a label you give to anyone collecting any type of government benefit. It has everything to do with the "I hope to get away with it crowd."
I know a Republican that ended up with a tax refund check over the amount owed and he spent it all. Yes a Republican, God's chosen people. Some people cant resist the urge to spend money they know is not theirs. This is not a mentality found only with SNAP recipients.
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Hopefully they'll find out who took advantage of this situation and prosecute.
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10-14-2013, 07:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-14-2013, 07:14 PM by PonderThis. Edited 1 time in total.)
I haven't heard Walmart complaining. Walmart bent over backwards to accommodate a substantial core part of their market, and they did so with grace and dignity, at a time they could have simply flipped off their customers instead. For Walmart, the whatever loss comes of this will be trivial, in the overall amount of good grace they have fostered among their customer base.
And if Walmart doesn't like it, I'm sure they'll be taking it up with their manager, and probably develop a policy for the future, too.
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(10-14-2013, 06:15 PM)cletus1 Wrote: (10-14-2013, 04:59 PM)orygunluvr Wrote: (10-14-2013, 04:42 PM)Scrapper Wrote: It's not like Wally World can't afford to pay the overages. A drop in the bucket for them.
You're absolutely right, but it still shows the integrity of the "you owe me" crowd. It would be interesting to know the percentage that went over as opposed to those with some integrity that simply knew how much they could spend. Besides, it will go in the loss column against wal marts taxes anyways.
No, it has nothing to do with the "you owe me crowd," which I assume is a label you give to anyone collecting any type of government benefit. It has everything to do with the "I hope to get away with it crowd."
I know a Republican that ended up with a tax refund check over the amount owed and he spent it all. Yes a Republican, God's chosen people. Some people cant resist the urge to spend money they know is not theirs. This is not a mentality found only with SNAP recipients.
You been studying the art of debate with Ponder ? You changed what OL said so that you could disagree.
He didn't say the Owe me crowd was a label that fits anyone receiving a government benefit. YOU DID.
If you don't think there is a you owe me crowd then you must be crazy.
And I'll go a lot farther than OL and I'll say Yes it has to do with the "you owe me crowd"
I'll say it probably has a lot to do with the WHITEY owes me crowd since Mansfield Louisiana is 77 percent black.
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But you're not racist, nosiree.
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