How many signs can you not read?

[Smapti]

Last night here in Statesylvania, we had a planned EBT/food stamp outage while the system the state uses to process EBT transactions switched over from one vendor to another. As a result, EBT cards were not usable anywhere in the state from about 10 PM to 8 AM.

Fortunately, unlike many outages which happen with no warning, this was a planned outage. We knew it was coming. It was even in the papers and on the TV news. If you checked your balance online or on the phone, you got an alert that it was coming. We've had signs on our front door for nearly a week warning that it was coming. Last night, as the fated hour approached, we hung more signs on every single register and throughout the store, put two banners across the entry and exit doors, and assigned a light-duty employee to stand in the entrance and be a human signpost, and we made multiple announcements on the overhead about what was happening and warning people to complete their business if they were paying with EBT.

Guess how many complaints we got overnight from customers who didn't know EBT was down?

If your answer was "few to none", you obviously don't work in retail. The evening crew that left as we were coming in at 11 basically spent the entire last hour of their shift fielding complaints and putting away perishable go-backs. I personally got assigned to go on the PA every half hour or so overnight (I guess because I have the best radio voice?) to repeat the announcement that EBT was down, and after each declaration I pretty much ended up having to sweep the aisles for abandoned carts and void out transactions from people who were at the register, being rung up, standing right in front of a giant sign saying EBT is down, who had no idea that EBT was down.

I also got to take multiple phone calls from people who thought our competitors had been lying to them when they told them EBT was down and wanted reassurance that they could come shop at our store.

It just boggles the mind.

[Jay 2K Winger]

How many signs can you not read?

Answer: All the signs. All of them.

[Mr Hero]

What was posted: "We apologize, but the EBT will freeze from the hours of 10pm to 8am
What they read: "** ********* *** *** **** FREE** **** *** ***** ** **** ** ***"

[notalwaysright]

I remember when a new grocery store opened near my work. I walked over on opening day, and at the time I was receiving food assistance. Unfortunately for the grand opening, there was an unplanned outage that day. I noticed they had printed up signs on the doors, and after I'd walked around for a while, I asked an employee if the system was still down. Poor thing was pretty stressed, and said that yes it was still down. It was okay, I probably wouldn't have fought the very long lines of the opening sale.

When I see pictures of carts of food abandoned because of an outage it's pretty disheartening. This sort of behavior is part of why some people have such a low opinion of people on assistance.

[Slave to the Phone]

Answer: All the signs. All of them.

This, so much this.

When I worked at a library, I got tired of answering the same question over and over, so I made signs. My more seasoned coworkers were very amused at my efforts. At first, I just had the signs at the door and by the display of videos. That didn't work, so I put some standing signs on the counter. I also taped signs to the counter itself.

People would walk by the signs at the door, look over the videos, come to the counter and push a standing sign out of the way so they could lean their elbows on the sign to ask me that same question.

I was considering having t-shirts printed for myself and staff to wear but that got shot down by the dress code police.

So, yes, the answer is "All of the signs."

[mhkohne]

This sort of behavior is part of why some people have such a low opinion of people on assistance.

Sadly, yes. But one awesome thing about this site is that it makes perfectly obvious that SC behavior knows no bounds of race, creed, os socio-economic status. Sadly.

[drjonah]

Aaaah yes, I remember the same thing happened in Ohio a couple years ago it was a nightmare even though just like with the OP's story, it was all over the news, paper, internet, etc and STILL people were oblivious to it.

But you can bet if you made a 1/4" x 1/4" sign saying 'Everything is free' and put the sign on the corner of the ceiling, every SC would see THAT

[MoonCat]

Next time the state should text recipients. They must have a phone number on file. Start the text with FREE!!!....notice: (here fill in the message. Keep it short.)

Seriously, it's probably the only thing they would actually read.

[Kittish]

Next time the state should text recipients. They must have a phone number on file. Start the text with FREE!!!....notice: (here fill in the message. Keep it short.)

Seriously, it's probably the only thing they would actually read.

Unfortunately, most people wouldn't read past the FREE!!! part, and go around demanding whatever they thought it was for, for free! And scream about false advertising when they were informed that no, you don't get anything for free.

[panamared]

...standing right in front of a giant sign saying EBT is down, who had no idea that EBT was down.

It just boggles the mind.

Read these statistics for our Nation and maybe you'll start to get the idea why...

- In a study of literacy among 20 ‘high income’ countries; US ranked 12th
- Illiteracy has become such a serious problem in our country that 44 million adults are now unable to read a simple story to their children
- 50% of adults cannot read a book written at an eighth grade level
- 45 million are functionally illiterate and read below a 5th grade level
- 44% of the American adults do not read a book in a year

And the end result of all this:

- 3 out of 4 people on welfare can’t read

Stupidity, the last non-taxable gift

[taxguykarl]

Answer: All the signs. All of them.

That question was rhetorical, right?

[greek_jester]

Stupidity, the last non-taxable gift

There is a difference between stupidity and ignorance.

Stupidity is the inability to learn, and a playground insult. Someone with a low IQ or a learning disability should be helped, not mocked.

Ignorance is having the ability to learn but not having done so. Causes range from an unwillingness to learn to a lack of opportunity to learn, and each case should be judged on its own merits. Again, not something to mock in many cases as they are no more at fault for a lack of resources than someone born with a condition which keeps them from learning. Would you mock an African orphan who has to pick over rubbish tips to survive, and can't read or write because they had to prioritise survival? I would hope not.

People who are deliberately ignorant? Now, that's what this board us for

[Nunavut Pants]

People who are deliberately ignorant? Now, that's what this board us for

So, you're talking about aliteracy as opposed to illiteracy.

[Chromatix]

I think there are three categories:

1) Those who can read, but refuse to. That's aliteracy, and is a form of wilful ignorance.

2) Those who can't read, but could learn to if they bothered trying. That's illiteracy through ignorance.

3) Those who can't read because they have a learning disability, or because they never had the opportunity to learn. That's the conventional form of illiteracy.

[Argabarga]

People missing signs are the reason I'm employed