WIC Customer

[purplecat41877]

Today, a customer bought some items with a WIC check and the cheese didn't come up as WIC. The customer insisted that she got the cheese on WIC all the time. She got the assistant store director who was nearby. I mentioned that the cheese didn't come up on WIC since it was a flavored cheese. The customer still insisted that she got that same cheese on WIC all the time. The assistant store director decided to let her have it anyway since she wouldn't stop insisting.

I printed a duplicate receipt after I put the sale through and the assistant store director initialed it a little later. One of my service desk coworkers saw the slip and confirmed that the cheese on the receipt was not a WIC item.

[Talendor]

I feel for you. As someone who has studied the WIC system for classwork (my degree is in Human Development and Family Studies), I know that the system constantly changes on what it allows, disallows and the quantities of such.
Good luck

[ShinyGreenApple]

That's too bad. It's called a customer scamming you; it happens all the time. When I was at Wal-Mart, people would argue with me, saying "I get that on WIC at Winn Dixie all the time!" A while later, I found myself working for Winn Dixie, and sure enough, the same people would come through my line and say "Wal-Mart lets me get that on WIC all the time!"

Your manager really shouldn't have done that, though; a store can lose its WIC license if they're caught doing that too much.

[Automan Empire]

Oooooh, I hate people using the safety net as a hammock!

Here in Southern California, there are dedicated WIC storefronts!

One is in a shopping center that I frequent. Let me tell you, I'm damn sick of these well-dressed, coiffed ladies double parking their new 4runners, Excursions, and once even a Hummer, then giving me dirty looks as I try to squeeze by in the driving lane, while the store worker carries their free s$%^ out to the car for them, while they carry only their designer purse.

Don't get me started on the section 8 tenants behind my shop... not a one of them drives an SUV older than 5 years, and they complain to the city about how my workshop (that pays their way through hard work and taxation) is ugly when viewed from the back. If you want to live the beautiful life, get a job and work to earn the money to live somewhere behind an auto shop in the industrial, next-to-the-freeway neighborhood!

[PuckishOne]

Okay folks, we're getting dangerously into Fratchingland here...let's keep any discussions of public-assistance recipients or policies out of this thread and just deal with the OP. Thanks.

[Automan Empire]

Can do!
I was in a local convenience store, and a [unflattering description removed on second thought] woman with baby and face-tattooed boyfriend demanded Marlboro Reds on their WIC card. The guy was scary-looking; the clerk gave in.

[mscrybaby]

I feel for you. As someone who has studied the WIC system for classwork (my degree is in Human Development and Family Studies), I know that the system constantly changes on what it allows, disallows and the quantities of such.
Good luck

When I was on WIC years ago the stores also could decide if they wanted to sell certain items on WIC. Many of the cheeses and formulas were nto allowed at many stores. My son had to have soy formula and even though the one I wanted was on the list the store refused to let it be sold on WIC due to the loss of revenue cause WIC doesn 't always pay the full amount.

Can do!
I was in a local convenience store, and a [unflattering description removed on second thought] woman with baby and face-tattooed boyfriend demanded Marlboro Reds on their WIC card. The guy was scary-looking; the clerk gave in.

I have had this happen to me several times in the C-Store and in the grocery store when I clerked. I never gave in though I stood firm and had back up from the management.
I remember when MO changed from paper stamps to the EBT card, I heard more people asking how they were going to get their weed, smokes and beer.

[purplecat41877]

It's called a customer scamming you; it happens all the time. When I was at Wal-Mart, people would argue with me, saying "I get that on WIC at Winn Dixie all the time!" A while later, I found myself working for Winn Dixie, and sure enough, the same people would come through my line and say "Wal-Mart lets me get that on WIC all the time!"

Actually, where I work, that wouldn't be too surprising. This thread will explain it further.

[Belari]

I'm confused. When I worked at a convenience store, we physically could not make the registers take a WIC voucher if there were any unauthorized items rung up. How do you allow it?

[blas]

We were always threatened at the grocery store that if we let non WIC items slide by and whatnot, we'd get dinged for it and could even risk termination. Of course, there were times that Baby Seal Eating Manager would break her own rules and let it slide because she loved to take it up the butt from customers, but that's what was always preached to us.

Only normal cereals were acceptable.....all the kinds with the super cool marshmallows and extra sugar and whatever are not, only normal block cheese, only regular milk, only regular peanut butter, NOT half peanut butter half jelly, only certain juices....

[Auto]

I don't understand why stores don't tell employees to assume that any customer asking them to do something against the law/regulations is probably part of a sting operation by regulators.

Where, as soon as you do the transaction, the cops/state agents will bust in the front door to fine/arrest the employees and strip the store's license to sell those items.

When I first tended bar, the owner told me that anyone who whined and pleaded to buy booze when he lacked ID had to be working for the state liquor board. My job was to keep telling the customer that what he was asking was against the law. And then kick him out.

And if customer claimed that other stores/bars allowed him to buy w/o ID, then he should just go there and become their problem.

Stores selling WIC food need to do the same. Keep asking the customer if she's part of a police sting operation.

It's hard to argue with a clerk who keep repeating "I don't want to go to jail because you're really an undercover cop."

[Belari]

I don't understand why stores don't tell employees to assume that any customer asking them to do something against the law/regulations is probably part of a sting operation by regulators.

Where, as soon as you do the transaction, the cops/state agents will bust in the front door to fine/arrest the employees and strip the store's license to sell those items.

This is what I taught when I worked at a convenience store that sold alcohol and cigarettes. Always assume I'm being tested and can be fined/fired/arrested if I fail. Nothing like the terror of being a penniless convict to keep you in line.

Once, I really was tested. I passed with flying colors and earned our store a good grade and myself a monetary bonus

[blas]

I don't mean to disappoint, but most customers who whine, beg and plead for ciggs or beer without ID are usually NOT undercover cops or those kids who do stings for the police.

I heard it all......and these people were not working for the police or anyone else. They just thought being 18 meant never being carded again. They thought showing up once a week during the post 1st shift rush meant I HAD to recognize them and no longer card them. They thought their tattoos signified being 18. They thought bringing their baby in with them was proof that they were 18.

The undercover sting kids walked in, sheepishly asked for ciggs, got told "No ID, no ciggs", then a cop came in and said that it had been a sting and I passed. I passed several stings. Not one of them included whiners.

[SuperB]

The most interesting I've had yet was a kid, who may or may not have been barely 21, (no ID) threaten to walk out with his beer and leave the money so he couldn't be charged with any crime.

I have to agree, no one on a sting operation will go that route. They either don't have ID and see if you sell anyway or they show an underage ID.

[RetailSlave]

We just had to file a report on a guy who was trying to buy a non-WIC approved cereal and our register came up and said it wasn't approved. He said he got it all the time and was rather insistent, becoming loud and abusive to the point that the manager had to be called. The new WIC rules state that the boxes of cereal have to be 9 oz or larger and his were smaller than that. It's a real shame because his behavior could cause her to lose her WIC benefits and she (a former cashier at our store) and her mom (a former greeter) are both just as sweet as can be. It is only the baby daddy who is a butthead.
They also just changed the guidelines that you can't get any kind of milk besides regular milk (1%, 2% skim or whole)...no chocolate, no lactose free, no goats milk. It also has to be the cheapest milk...if store brand is $2.50 a gallon you can't get Dean's for $3.59. Cheese can be block, sliced or shredded...it just has to be 100% real cheese...not "Cheese product" or "cheese food".

We do have the ability to override the system if say, a customer comes in with a WIC check that specifies a certain type of formula and the system won't accept it. There is an option for the supervisor to override, but the cashier doesn't have the power to do so.