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Walmart Shopping Stampede Ensues When Foodstamp Glitch Removes EBT Spending Limits
On Saturday, tens of millions of Americans across 17 states found themselves in an unfamiliar situation: they couldn't rely on the US government for their daily foodstamp-funded bread. The result was anger, confusion and sometimes, outright panic, as shoppers left their full shopping carts in stores, and departed their favorite general retailer in a daze. However, while most outlets that accepted EBT were experiencing a one-day, non-recurring hit to their EPS, several Walmart stores in Louisiana decided to brave through the Xerox-induced blackout for several hours by eliminating the spending caps on EBT cards, leading to nothing short of shopping stampedes. The result, as CBS reports, is that "Walmart and local police in Springhill and Mansfield ... were called into the stores to help maintain order Saturday as shoppers swept through the aisles at two stores and bought as much as they could carry."
Walmart workers phoned their corporate headquarters to ask how they should handle all the shoppers with unlimited, government-funded spending limits, and were told to keep the registers ringing.
"We did make the decision to continue to accept EBT cards during the outage so that they could get food for their families," Walmart representative Kayla Whaling told KSLA. She added that Walmart was, "fully engaged and monitoring the situation and transactions during the outage."
Shoppers gave mixed reactions to the incident, with one man in the Springhill store told KSLA it was simply "human reaction" to stock-up when given the opportunity. Shopper Stan Garcia was more critical of the unscrupulous shoppers, however, saying that taking advantage of the brief glitch in the benefits system amounted to "plain theft. That's stealing, that's all I got to say about it."
The police disagreed:
Police spokesmen in both locations told KSLA that no arrests were made during the spending sprees.
After all, why arrest when all the public is doing is taking advantage of government generosity taken to its logical extreme: unlimited spending cards funding by either other taxpayers or America's creditors, the largest of which is now the Federal Reserve. Isn't that what the Fed enables Congress to do on a daily basis anyway?
Naturally, once the glitch was fixed, the stampede quickly ended:
Amateur video taken on shoppers' cell phones shows dozens of shopping carts, piled high with merchandise, abandoned in the aisles of one Walmart after the announcement was made that EBT cards were once again showing accurate spending limits.
There's that. Or perhaps it was all just a test run for what will happen when the Fed finally waves a white flag, and gives every American an unlimited-spending debt card in a desperate last-ditch effort to finally enact Bernanke's monetary helicopter paradrop wet dream.
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The police are animal control for the lower end of the top of the food chain predators.
Never let a good thievin' opportunity go to waste.
--Rahm what's-his-name
I accept the liberal argument that black people are the way they are because white people enslaved their distant ancestors, colonized (and later abandoned) their homelands, etc. Rather than talk in circles arguing with conservatives, let me put a fine point on it:
Black people have no agency. They are not responsible for their actions, ever.
Would you blame a lion if it ate your child? That's what lions do naturally. It's either the zoo's fault for not keeping the animal properly caged, or your fault for letting the kid get too close.
That may be the most racist thing I ever read.
you must be new to zero hedge
Naw, just checking on hypocrites. People like that will learn to use the N word soon enough.
where you from?
Realityville. But I do have a relative that fought under that flag of yours.
call it what you want but my experience has been closer to his position than yours. much closer.
So you are suggesting we put black people in cages like lions?
If you know the lion is going to rampage, you shoot the lion.
FEMA does not discriminate in any plans for future camps for re-education.
At one point in the past my mother liked to feed needy stray cats. Until there were over 30 showing up for free food. Finally the dogpound had to step in. Welfare and EBT in the long term turn people into ferile cats with a selfish dangerous attitude as they become worthless as productive members of society. Obama should turn the whitehouse into a stray cat sanctuary and stop destroying american values with free stuff.
obama became president IN ORDER TO do that, its not a mistake or accident
American exceptionalism. Calling the police adds new meaning to the phrase, "Blue Light Special." But I heard Obama told the police to stand down. "Let my people go!" Maybe they will try a food buy back, like they do with guns.
The Tylers love to throw out these click-bait topics, like fresh meat for frenzied racists. No, maybe I can improve the simile--for the multitude of multiple-posting tiny little piranhas...
We are just filling in the vast emptiness until you grace us with your return.
I hope they loaded up on bacon, ham, sidepork, pork chops, Boston butt, a picnic, pickled pig's feet, and bought a pail of lard for deep frying.
No lamb, ram, sheep or mutton. Who knows what it is.
It seems to me that this was a test.
I think it was a cynical ploy the ShroObQuebed admin to spook the recalcitrant Redpublicans.
"........ See? This can be all your fault .........."
Oct 17th, 2013 nightly news: "Word from Washington DC today is that political leadership HAD a budget, then realized EBT abuses in LA had skewed their numbers..."