posted on May 20, 2004 08:20:46 PM new
A friend of mine took a trip to northern Michigan last weekend. She brought a cooler with some soda (pop as we call it here) with us. On the way up, I had a can of Sprite and remarked that I haven't had Sprite in a long time. She told me that was some of the pop that she got free at the store where she works.
I knew she isn't a thief, so I asked her how she got them for free. In Michigan, there is no longer the use of paper food stamps, so people using them can't sell them for half of the face value like they used to to buy beer and cigarettes instead of food. The state now uses a credit card type of device called the Bridge Card, which shows a picture of the Mackinaw Bridge on it.
My friend told me that people using the Bridge Card will buy a 24 pack of pop paying for the pop and the deposit of 10 cent's per can, then set the unopened cans on the counter and tell the clerk that he/she doesn't want the pop. The customer says the clerk can have the pop, but wants the money for the deposit. The clerk is required under Michigan law to refund up to $5.00 at a time in bottle or can deposit. The person using the Bridge Card now take his $2.40 and buys two 22 oz. bottles of beer for 2.30.
posted on May 20, 2004 08:58:51 PM new
Here they are much less convoluted. They just offer to pay for your groceries with their EBT card if you will give them x% of what they use in cash.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
[ edited by fenix03 on May 20, 2004 08:59 PM ]
posted on May 20, 2004 09:04:46 PM new
We call it 'pop' here also. In OK and TX they call it soda
Anyway they have that here too. I only found out when I went to use my debit card, and asked the clerk what 'EBT' was, (where on the debit machine on the counter it has 'debit' or 'credit' now 'EBT') she said it was the new 'food stamp card' called Electronic Benefit Transfer, I believe it has all their cash allowance on it, plus the food allowance.
And yes, that is wrong, and fraud, that they do with the pop. Probably more things can be done that no one knows about yet.
posted on May 21, 2004 09:43:44 AM new
It is amazing to see people get upset about a $2.40 scam. It is a drop in the bucket compared to the corporate welfare program in this country.
posted on May 21, 2004 12:50:36 PM new
Near, not to begrudge your statement, but as a native Texan, I have never heard another native Texan refer to a soft drink as a soda.
Everything here is referred to as a "coke" as in coke a cola or by the soft drinks name. As in Dr Pepper, Pepsi, RC Cola or whatever.
It's a running joke here that the quickest way to determine how long a person has been in Texas is to listen as they order a soft drink.
"The Secret Service has announced it is doubling its protection for John Kerry. You can understand why — with two positions on every issue, he has twice as many people mad at him." —Jay Leno
posted on May 21, 2004 01:30:26 PM new
We call it "pop" here in NE Ohio. Once in a while you'll hear someone referring to it as "soda", but more often than not they weren't born in this part of the state. As for the fraud, I knew people who would do similar things when they had the paper money. Only, they didn't use the excess to purchase beer. They bought TP, soap, shampoo, etc. My daughter gets very little in food stamps. She works full time at minimum wage (around here she's lucky to have that job) and let's face it, $49 every two weeks in child support for her daughter does not cut it. Anyway, I've never seen anyone so carefully shop. She uses coupons and goes on double coupon days. She doesn't buy pop with her food card. She buys it with money from her paycheck. What she can buy with the $100 per month she gets, would take most people over $200 to buy. Not to change the subject or anything, wouldn't it be nice if young people were taught how to shop in school? Or, how to balance a checkbook or look for a job, etc.? I remember learning all of that in Home Ec (tells you how old I am). No more Home Ec, no more Shop. No wonder the kids can't do a thing when they leave. .
Fortunately, since states have started using the card, fraud is not as easy to commit.
posted on May 21, 2004 02:12:42 PM new
Bear! LOL! Ok, is it Oklahoma that says 'soda'? I lived in both states. I lived in teeeeeeeny tiny Thackerville, OK and then Gainseville, TX and Dallas, but I spent more time in OK. Both girls were born there.
I DO KNOW THIS, FOLKS IN OK LOVE THEIR DR. PEPPER!!! (and to top it off they pour peanuts in a can of 'pop' YUCK!!! )
posted on May 22, 2004 01:37:08 AM new
I don't see why someone who give away $6 (or more) worth of soda or pop to get $2.40 in beer money........
Why do they get to buy soda with a food allowance card in the first place?
Here in Vegas I was at Smith's (Kroger-Nevada) and they had posters on the divider walls at the checkout. It had photgraphic RULES of what you could buy like no brand name breakfast cereals you could ONLY BUY the generic version of... Basically any qualified food item if it had a generic you could only get the generic.
They seemed pretty strict on what you could buy with Govt Funds.
posted on May 23, 2004 03:25:06 PM new
i dont know why govt has to tell them they have to buy generic ??
this is a quality issue,sometimes it is better to have a little quality than a lot of quantity,and most brand name products are better made.
and the savings is not really that much.
-sig file -------we eat to live,not live to eat.
Benjamin Franklin
Sorry, but have to disagree with you. I am a native-born Texican and have lived here (in Texas) all my life. In my teens, we called them all "cokes". In my early adulthood, I changed to using the term "sodas". One reason was I didn't drink Cola drinks, and "Cokes" seemed to refer to Coke, Pepsi, Diet Rite, etc.
Most of my friends here call them "sodas" as well. I was raised in Houston and live in Austin.
Now, in your neck of the woods it may be different. Not here.
posted on May 23, 2004 08:26:08 PM new
lovepotions,
to answer your questions:
The person buying the sodas doesn't see it as giving "their" money away. They never had the money in the first place. It's coming out of the government's account, via a card that gets swiped. It is designed to help people who are down on their luck and need help buying basic foods
Answer to questions:
1. Irresponsible, and/or alcoholic
2. It's probably the one thing the card allows them to buy with their food allowance that has a deposit on the container. The deposit gets charged along with the price of the food item. They immediately return the cans, and get instant cash to buy the items the funding was never intended to cover.
The system is set up so only certain types of items can be deducted from the funds available on the card (meat, bread, milk, etc). It used to be up to the grocery cashier to enforce which items the government said could be purchased. I don't know if that part is computerized anywhere yet.
Likely, if a cashier tried to ring up a six pack of beer and the card was swiped to pay for it, the card would not work, or the store would not be paid the funds for an illegal transaction.
[ edited by meadowlark on May 23, 2004 08:33 PM ]
posted on May 23, 2004 09:48:43 PM new
I think it should be that anyone using the card to buy pop, a.k.a soda, would have to pay for the deposit in cash. This would put a halt to this practice of boozing on the taxpayers back.
What also irks the hell out of me is when these late teens and early 20 somethings come in the store at 2:30 in the morning and buy a couple of $1.89 Banquet TV dinners and the designer brands of Ginseng type drink for $1.69 each. Their "midnight snack" just cost the taxpayers $7.16. These idiots could have brought much more real food at the Super K located 1.5 miles away.
True Americans do not exclude anybody. They recognize that everyone should have the same rights. Bigotry, intolerance and hatred are cancers of the mind.
posted on May 24, 2004 05:06:50 AM new
yeager,
these guys are down and out,they could be drug addicts or alcoholics or people who just lost control of their life.
If they have the good sense to buy food economically and sensibly,home cooking and clean house and wash clothes,they will be working and do not need foodstamps.
This is like going to dollar stores and look for designer clothes,they just aint there/
when i was in new orleans,the burden of providing for the poor are just awesome-subsidized housing,food stamps,welfare checks,utility companies also offer to waive their bills every 3 months.Those hospital waiting rooms are always packed with people,those who have foodstamps will offer to buy your grocery if you pay them cash.
women just keep having children so they can afford to buy tv sets,food etc,to them it is a job,their job is to have babies so they can live to eat.I see girls carrying babies on bus,those girls look like they are barely 8 or 9 years old,can girls of 8-9 have babies??they look like they cant be more than 10 years old.
-sig file -------we eat to live,not live to eat.
Benjamin Franklin
posted on May 24, 2004 05:38:01 AM new
stopwhining
I'm not sure where you live, but here in Ohio (Cuyahoga Country), there is a two year max time to be on Welfare. After that, they kick you off no exceptions. The days of having child after child to get more money are over. At least here. A person with a family CANNOT feed that family when they are making minimum wage by cleaning other people's houses. Even at $7 or $8 an hour you cannot do it. It just won't happen. I don't object to working people getting food stamps. They're working and trying to make a living at least. Single people here, unless disabled, are not entitled to food stamps. Even the disabled get very little. I know a woman who has cancer, COPD, osteoporosis with 80% bone loss (spelling is bad today), glaucoma, among other things. She just now got disability after a four year wait. Now that she's near death, she's getting $50 a month in food stamps. You can't feed a dog on that.
Being critical of those who are trying to feed their children with food stamps is rather heartless especially considering the amount of money we are feeding into Iraq. When all is said and done, they will have it better there thanks to our money - new hospitals, new schools, more teachers, new everything.
posted on May 24, 2004 06:28:11 AM new
i lived in new orleans for years and thats what i saw,i dont know what the situation is now,i dont think these people can survive without welfare assistance and jobs are hard to come by.
-sig file -------we eat to live,not live to eat.
Benjamin Franklin
posted on May 26, 2004 06:51:16 PM new
Here in Kentucky you use to see lines clear back through the store of nothing but people with food stamps,now you see a few people who get disability checks use their cards once a month and like you said they don't get much.
