Cashier Shames Customer for Not Having Enough Food Stamps
An incident at an Albertson’s grocery store in Gresham, Oregon, is stirring up quite a bit of commotion on social media.
According to a May 18 Facebook post by a woman named Amanda, another woman using the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children to purchase basic items like milk and eggs was publicly shamed by a cashier Amanda calls “Debbie.”
“I am absolutely appalled!” Amanda wrote, sharing how the woman was $12 over her WIC certificate limit.
When Amanda’s mom offered to pay the difference for the woman, the cashier reportedly refused to allow her to do so.
The story is heartbreaking. For those who aren’t familiar with WIC benefits, they come in the form of monthly vouchers for the simplest of groceries such as peanut butter, beans, milk, eggs, and whole wheat bread.
The program is for women who are pregnant or who have children under the age of 5 at home. The purpose of the program is to provide healthy food for mothers and children in need.
While some vouchers have specific items listed like “two gallons of milk” or “16 oz. of peanut butter,” the fruit and vegetable vouchers have a dollar limit.
As someone who has been on WIC before, I can attest to the time it takes to weigh fruits and vegetables with a toddler in my shopping cart and an infant strapped to my chest.
Try as you might, the scales in the produce section are not the same as the scales at checkout. You’re never going to weigh out the exact dollar amount on the voucher. You simply have to do the best you can to get as close as you can to that amount.
Amanda’s post about her encounter with the WIC woman and the Albertson’s cashier soon went viral and has sparked a recent social experiment that begs the question: “What would you do?”
ABC News was on the scene at a grocery store with hidden cameras to see what customers would do if they had been there that day with Amanda and her mom.
The result is heart warming. These Good Samaritans are truly something. Some of them even offer to pay for the woman’s extra groceries, though they admit they have little of their own.
When asked why they would help the woman, who uses food stamps in the video, customers mentioned words like “human” and “community.”
How about you? If you were in a situation like the one Amanda mentioned and the one ABC News portrayed in the video, would you stand by and watch?
Or would you help a fellow person in need? We can’t know another’s situation. We can only offer kindness and support where it’s needed. What would YOU do?
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
