Walmart Debacle in Louisiana

If there was a policy for stricter regulations regarding food stamp distribution and usage, I'd vouch for it. Personally, I disagree with people benefiting from food stamps and don't deserve it. For instance, food stamps are supposed to be temporary; yet, there are recipients that have managed to make a career out of the Electronic Benefits Transfer program. They receive food stamps longer than they've actually been employed.

Who can blame them? With an EBT card, recipients are privileged to a free phone with an amount of minutes per month. In some cases, some recipients are eligible for Medicaid. In most cases, that's no job with the luxury of free food, free phone, and free health services.

Where's the motivation to work?

In any event, there was a circus at Mansfield and Springshill, Louisiana over the weekend. Apparently, Louisiana was one of 17 states that experienced the EBT system-failure. Instead of not accepting EBT purchases like other grocery stores, Walmart allowed patrons to use their EBT card to make purchases.

Where's the harm in that? EBT recipients went on a shopping frenzy. The EBT outage allowed recipients to spend unlimited amounts of money rather than their usual allotted amount. For example, if a recipient is allotted $200 worth of food stamps, the EBT outage allowed that recipient to spend $700 since there was no way to monitor the spending limit.

This led customers to wipe out shelves and clean out the meat department! It was reported that customers were hauling eight to ten shopping carts at a time. These EBT recipients were fully cognizant of what they were doing -- stealing. This must have been heaven for them.

Given any case, this is one of many reasons why I believe there should be stricter regulations when it comes to the distribution of food stamps. Once Walmart announced that the EBT outage was over, it became a ghost town. Customers deserted their shopping carts and Walmart. Why? They couldn't loot any more.

In the end, Walmart was left with the bill; in such cases as these, EBT patrons are supposed to make purchases no greater than $50. With the EBT outage and Walmart's folly, food stamp recipients experienced the true meaning of saving money and living better -- thanks to Walmart.