I hate to break it to you...

[Bella_Vixen]

This guy comes in, and buys some stuff on WIC.

He's also buying some other stuff, and has a coupon for "buy 3, get one free" for cereal.

Small problem: the 3 cereals were on his WIC thing.

I asked the girl at SD, who then asked the AM, what should be done. The answer: the coupon cannot be used, because of ramifications if WIC does an audit, or whatever.

Dude got pissed, and said "I BOUGHT those cereals, and I should get to use the coupon!!!"

I didn't say anything, but...

Dude, YOU did NOT buy the cereal. The fine folks at WIC did.








I had fun quizzing coworkers on the semantics.

[Eric the Grey]

Frankly, I don't really understand that. He's using a coupon to stretch the WIC money he's been given to feed his kids. Seems like a smart thing for him, or anybody using public support to do. Why on earth would they block it?



Eric the Grey

[Lingering Grin]

Frankly, I don't really understand that. He's using a coupon to stretch the WIC money he's been given to feed his kids. Seems like a smart thing for him, or anybody using public support to do. Why on earth would they block it?



Eric the Grey

TAPE

[dougall]

Well I would imagine WIC will get a huge discount on the food already so they will not be able to eat the coupon discount and the WIC one.

[persephone]

Actually, I know the law in Georgia is that anything and everything that is bought on WIC is subject to the same sales and coupons as if WIC weren't buying it. Meaning that if customer has a coupon for so much off, or if the store is selling it at 2 for 1 or buy 2 get 1 free, the store HAS to honor that sale. As long as the original purchase (say in the buy 2 get 1 free case) don't equal to more than the allowed amount, it doesn't matter if the free one sends it over the amount.

I don't know if your state is the same, but you might want to look into it. It's possible that your customer was right. He was still rude and sucky, but he could be right.

[earl colby pottinger]

The good suffer because of the bad

This is one of those things where I think the customer's expectations are right - I would like for him to get the extra breakfast cereals as I just can't see it harming him or his family.

The problem of-course is that if that is allowed some other SC will use the loop-hole to cause problems else where.

Is mouthwash available under WIC? I can just see some booze hound's eyes light up on a 3 for 1 special there.

Or someone getting something extra that they don't really need so they can in turn sell it for money.

SCs always find ways to abuse the system, and when the system fights back innocents get caught in the cross-fire.

[persephone]

Is mouthwash available under WIC? I can just see some booze hound's eyes light up on a 3 for 1 special there.

Or someone getting something extra that they don't really need so they can in turn sell it for money.

No, mouthwash is not available. What is available on WIC is VERY specific, down to limitations on amount and only specific brands. I will give you the examples from Georgia, since that's the only one I know.

Each family in Georgia that is on WIC gets three checks a month. There are a couple of things that might be switched out depending on what you need, but generally what you get is:

• Check 1 -- 2 gallons of milk; 1 pound of cheese; up to 46 oz. of cereal; 1 dozen eggs; 18 oz. of peanut butter; 2 46 oz bottles of juice OR 2 24 oz cans of frozen juice.

• Check 2 -- 2 gallons of milk; 1 pound of cheese; 1 dozen eggs; 2 46 oz bottles of juice OR 2 24 oz cans of frozen juice

• Check 3 -- 1 and a half gallons of milk; 2 46 oz bottles of juice OR 2 24 oz cans of frozen juice

That is all. WIC checks are not like food stamps where it can be used as cash to pay for certain kinds of things. WIC checks are for very specific products and specific brands that have been approved by WIC. Not things that would generally be considered to be "resellable" or in any way really worth trying to scam in those cases.

So while, yes, it is possible to scam on WIC, it is hard and the scamming on WIC is more likely to be someone who doesn't actually qualify monetarily managing to qualify by lying about their income. I just don't understand why coupons and such wouldn't be allowed. I know they're allowed here in Georgia and it makes sense to allow them -- it allows a family that's struggling to provide even more for their family without costing the state any more.

*shrug* I'll stop with the educating now.

[Becks]

Never mind the fact that I don't know if the WIC setup on the registers even ALLOWS coupons...

(BTW, Bella asked me, too.)

[persephone]

Never mind the fact that I don't know if the WIC setup on the registers even ALLOWS coupons...

(BTW, Bella asked me, too.)

Oh, I'm not saying Bella did anything wrong at all! If she's been told that WIC doesn't allow coupons, then she should do what the store says to do. I'm just saying it might be something to mention to her Manager so they can check with the State and see how it's supposed to be handled.

Sorry if it sounded like I was saying Bella was wrong. I know Bella would never do that! I just want to make sure her store isn't going to get in trouble or something.

[Becks]

Persephone, oh, no, I wasn't trying to imply/say that you said anything wrong.

I was just saying that the way our registers are set up for WIC checks, I honestly don't know if it would allow coupons on it.

...And while I've worked at a grocery store before, this is my first time cashiering at one, and I..just don't know.

And if the SD people and management didn't have a clue, how are we cashiers supposed to know? (Thus leading to a potential rant against my place of employment that will be saved for a later date.)

[Blade_Raver]

Maybe it goes along the lines of "this coupon can not be used in addition to any other coupon deal" or so forth..

As to the complaining Dude.. "Grab a straw... because YOU SUCK!"

[Bella_Vixen]

Becks, the way they have the registers set up, it flags any item that is not WIC approved. Trust me. I've gotten several people come through with a juice or cheese or what have you that isn't approved.

Who knows? It might have gone through. I'll have to quiz M and maybe MtE about it someday.


I just asked my mom about it, and she says that it should have been allowed, as long as the coupon didn't say "Not valid with any other discounts" or whatall. She did say, however, that there is a VERY fine line where WIC is concerned.

[Kogarashi]

At Walmart, from what I recall, WIC transactions need to be run completely separate from the rest of a customer's purchases, and done only for the group of items on each WIC check. So Persephone's example with Checks 1, 2, and 3 would be three separate transactions, with a fourth if the customer had additional items.

This means that the customer in the OP would have had to ring his fourth box of cereal and his coupon in a transaction separate from the three boxes on his WIC check. Without those three boxes in the same transaction as the free fourth, the register would not allow the coupon. It basically would complain, "Hey, this guy's only buying one! He can't do the Buy Three deal!"

And honestly, I don't know how to fix that problem, other than send him to Customer Service and get management to handle it. Beyond that, though, I don't see why it should be disallowed. WIC is a lot harder to scam (from what I've seen/heard) than Food Stamps.

[persephone]

This means that the customer in the OP would have had to ring his fourth box of cereal and his coupon in a transaction separate from the three boxes on his WIC check. Without those three boxes in the same transaction as the free fourth, the register would not allow the coupon. It basically would complain, "Hey, this guy's only buying one! He can't do the Buy Three deal!"

And honestly, I don't know how to fix that problem, other than send him to Customer Service and get management to handle it. Beyond that, though, I don't see why it should be disallowed. WIC is a lot harder to scam (from what I've seen/heard) than Food Stamps.

How it works in Georgia is if there is some kind of special or coupon with a product, it is rung on the WIC transaction and shown on the receipt as being a "free" item, WIC isn't charged and therefore it remains on the WIC check. And the checks, all three, are available for the whole month, so it's rare for people to have three WIC transactions AND a regular transaction. Usually, it's just one of the checks and a regular transaction. But yes, the WIC has to be done completely seperately.

[Kogarashi]

When I worked at Walmart, I had several customers do two WIC checks plus extras on a third transaction, and occasionally had people do three checks plus extra. I also know that, when I worked at Walmart, our store at least was very strict about what could and could not be on the WIC transaction. Coupons were not allowed on the WIC transaction, because that would've put food items on the transaction that weren't covered by the check (whether or not WIC would've actually had to pay for it).

I'm more than certain it's different at other stores.