WIC Witch

[Peppergirl]

I was at Publix today, picking up some chicken for supper and went to check out. There was about 5 of the 10 lanes open, one being an express. This is a smallish store and it was around 4pm, so I didn't think this to be horrible.

The express lane specifically says '10 items or less, no checks'.

I get in the line, and there are around 4 people ahead of me. I stand for a minute or two and notice the line hasn't moved. I look up, and the woman at the front is writing on checks and handing them over. I looked again, and I notice she has at LEAST 30 items, and I saw the checks were WIC vouchers.

Now, let me start by saying - I have no issue with WIC or people who use it. I was a teenage, single mom once - and i tried to get it (was declined), so I respect the program alot.

My problem as that this entitled BITCH decided to haul at least 30 items into the 10 item or less lane, and proceeded to use 5 or 6 of the wic vouchers, each one apparently has to be rung through seperately - so this became a total of 5 or 6 small transactions, and a voucher being processed for each one.

To give you an idea of how long this took...I waited 10 minutes total in this line. Then a manager noticed the situation and opened another line. A few people ran over and I noticed another line that was shorter, so I went over there. I stood another 10 minutes, paid and bagged my own stuff (remember - I had less than 10 items, so it was quick), and as I was leaving, i saw that she was STILL checking out.

So, that's a total of 20 minutes - AT THE EXPRESS LANE, and that doesnt even COUNT how long she was there before me or after I left.

I'm still just floored. What an entitled hag. She had at least triple the limit of the lane, and knew damned well its a complicated process to use each one.

And please - lets not turn this into a rant against wic or welfare...that's not what its about. I'd really love to hear from cashiers who have to deal with these dreaded vouchers on a daily basis. I know it varies from state to state, but florida sure does appear to be a pain in the ass. I think Ohio is card based, at least from what I've seen in stores.


Really, they should have made her go to another line. I felt really sorry for the cashier, he was in a no-win situation.

[Bright_Star]

Well, when I was a cashier at Wal-Mart I had to deal with WIC vouchers. It does take some time to process them so someone really needs to go through a regular register & NOT an express line. & a lot of times I've been on an express regsister & here comes somebody with WIC items that were more than X items or less. So I would tell them , they'd throw a fit, here comes the CSM, I tell her what's up, she says "go ahead & do it", I do it & get people throwing a fit cause it's taking too long & it's an express register!
Too many people don't give a shit if it's an express register & they have a ton of stuff. CSM's don't make it easier when they give in to every person who gets upset & all you're doing is what you've been trained to do & you're just following established rules & procedures. Then u get blasted to pieces by customers for following the rules AND managment who bend over backwards & make u look like an ass simply for doing your job.
You can't win either way.

[EvilEmpryss]

You just don't understand her logic. 30 items divided by five transactions equals less than ten items per transaction.

Yes, only an EW does math that way, but there you have it. It's the same as a husband/wife team hitting the ten items or less lane with slightly more than two dozen items in the cart. It's only one or two items over the <10 if they split it, right? (grumblegrumblegrumbleBastards)

[SG15Z]

This is why I'm so glad Texas no longer has vouchers and has cards instead.

[Midorikawa]

...This is why I don't like shopping (or at this point leaving the house). I'd be fine if people didn't think rules apply to everyone but themselves, but we all know every speshul snowflake is above the rules, above the law, and heaven help the poor bastards who get in their way.

[Peppergirl]

Total WORD to all of your comments.

It was a no-win situation all around. If he had told her to go away, she'd have bitched. He let her stay and every one else was inconvenienced and bitched, so there's no good solution when it comes to entitlement whores like that..

I still say the manager should have collected her and moved her to another register and checked her out himself.

Unrealistic, I guess - but there it is.

Of course, I guess I could have pitched a huge fit and demanded gift cards and compensation for my lost time. I'm sure a spineless manager or corporate would have been happy to kiss my ass.

But alas, as a good customer - I just rolled my eyes and sucked it up.

[BethB]

There are vouchers here in Colorado which takes F...O...R...E...V...E...R. But Wyoming started putting it on cards. Dang, I miss it so much. I just feel the vouchers force you to take all the stuff or you're SOL. With a card, you get what you need at the time without the waste.

[spookysonata]

It was a no-win situation all around. If he had told her to go away, she'd have bitched. He let her stay and every one else was inconvenienced and bitched, so there's no good solution when it comes to entitlement whores like that..

I still say the manager should have collected her and moved her to another register and checked her out himself.

Better to do the right thing and endure the bitching from the one person who was inconvenienced, than to piss off everybody else and get bitched at from all sides!

[EvilEmpryss]

Better to do the right thing and endure the bitching from the one person who was inconvenienced, than to piss off everybody else and get bitched at from all sides!

Agreed. To paraphrase Spock: The needs of the polite many outweigh the suckiness of the few... or the one.

[Misanthropical]

Did she have out of control screaming and running up and down the aisles children that she smiled at and beamed at everyone at how they are a handful and she can never control them? If so, I think she was the store I was in last week.

[Zoom]

WIC is my friend.

If we're going to have to work within bureaucracy, it's always a good idea to be able to put the red tape to good use!

I love telling the customer they got the wrong breakfast cereal and that they need to get the right one. They ask me which one is the right one. I tell them the state provided them with a list of the right cereals. Again, they say they don't have or never received the list. Then I launch into speculation that to not have the list, maybe they don't qualify for WIC and are just faking it!

Of course, I back away at that last one, saying "Just kidding, I'll tell you what's on our copy of the list so you can go get it." Then I rattle off the Twelve Holy Cereal Names: Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, etc. etc. and she just stands there and looks at me.

"So what do you want me to do?" she asks again, in broken English. I ask her which cereal she wanted from the list I spewed out, and whether she wants to get herself or if she wants me to call Grocery to get it.

Having Grocery get something for us is a new procedure, caused directly by not having enough baggers at registers any more because our store is a tightwad. Grocery has occasionally refused to get us things, and I've had to escalate by telling the manager on them.

Meanwhile, customer stands there, pondering her options. "I think I'll get it. Be right back." I love how they are very hesitant to actually walk away even though there are six very impatient people in line behind them. Of course, she finally gets the courage to walk-- very slowly-- back to the cereal aisle, as if she didn't have an open purse and infant still in the cart.

WIC is my friend! I get to watch the WIC recipient and the six people behind her endure a long wait! This makes up for those insufferable SCs with their entitlement and their gaseous emissions. Of course, maybe none of my victims really deserve such treatment, but how do I know that? All humans look alike.

Anyway, cereal is just one problem they have. There's also when it says QUARTS of milk instead of gallons; 16 OZ. of wheat bread instead of 24 oz.; fruits/vegetables must not exceed $6 (and they can't pay some of that; state MUST pay the whole thing); instant oatmeal must not have added flavors; eggs can be large but not extra large or "jumbo size" (they named the size after a famous elephant? I doubt the elephant was that small!); on and on, endless beautiful bureaucracy to bedazzle the braindead.

And then there's the tale of the GUY who came in to redeem some WICs... that's a short story in itself which I'll save for later.

[boringscreenname]

My family is currently using WIC and it does indeed take forever to ring everything up and process the transaction. We never buy all our WIC stuff in one trip we break it up over 2 or 3 trips.

When we were receiving formula vouchers we bought all our monthly cans in one trip, but we never used the Express Lane because we knew how long it took. We'd still get dirty looks from other customers even though we were in a regular lane, due to how long the whole process takes but we have no control over that and can't do anything about it.

Also we're in Ohio, and don't use cards, just vouchers, but I always sign the vouchers as soon as we get to the checkout lane to make things go a bit quicker.

[ralerin]

I'm happy that at my Aid of Rite we only accept EBT/Food/SNAP and not WIC. Got bitched out by one woman for not taking WIC. If she had asked first, we would have told her and she would have used her foodstamp card for her baby formula.

[NorthernZel]

Phew. Over here, Social Security just issues a "gift card" to a certain chain of supermarkets if necessary (most often they just wire some money but do issue gift cards if they suspect that the money won't be used for food), AFAIK the only restriction is that you cannot buy tobacco and alcohol, there are no rules on buying certain brands.

[Zoom]

Got bitched out by one woman for not taking WIC.

No grocery stores whatsoever are required to take WIC. Why? Because there are apparently actual WIC stores in existence that are run for the express purpose of dealing with WIC orders.

Any customer asks me, "You're out of baby food/formula/etc. of some type, flavor or whatever" and fails to even use a question mark at the end of it, and I can respond with "Sadly, yes." because we don't have to cater to them. Out of stock? Not your favorite brand? Go to the WIC store.

Where is the WIC store? I don't know! Maybe it got annexed by Narnia or something. Right next to the Land of Milk and Honey.

Basically, if a store loses too much money trying to redeem WICs that were handled incorrectly and thus rejected, they give up and cancel the whole thing.