Americans who receive assistance from the government could soon receive a bit from Amazon, too: The e-commerce giant announced that it will provide a monthly Prime membership discount to customers who have an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card. [More]
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Amazon Offers Discounted Monthly Prime Membership For Some Low Income Customers
By 6.6.17 — Updated: 6.9.17
Louisiana Residents Who Milked SNAP Outage May Lose Food Benefits
By 11.14.13
Xerox and Walmart pointed fingers of blame at each other in the immediate aftermath of a public benefits card failure last month. Some shoppers saw that their cards showed no balance or limit and took the opportunity to strip store shelves. The administration of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal knows where the blame really belongs, though: with the shoppers. [More]
Walmart Blames Xerox (Who Blames Walmart) For Unlimited EBT Shopping Spree
By 10.15.13
Over the weekend in Louisiana, some food stamp recipients realized that their EBT cards were suddenly showing up as having no limit, resulting in empty shelves and overflowing shopping carts as people tried to buy as much stuff as possible with their cards before the glitch was fixed. Now, Walmart and Xerox are playing the blame game over who’s at fault. [More]
Why You Can’t Just Pay Your Rent At The Bank With Your EBT Card
By 6.13.12
In many states, various forms of public aid are placed on Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards that are then used by recipients to buy food and other necessary purchases. However, EBT users can’t always just walk into a bank to transfer funds from a card to another person’s checking account. [More]
Record-High 45.8 Millions Americans Using Food Stamps
By 8.5.11
According to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s latest report on its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (aka food stamps), a record 45.8 million Americans received SNAP benefits during the month of May, up 12% from the same month in 2010 and 34% from two years ago. [More]
Costco Will Expand Food Stamp Program Nationwide
By 10.28.09
It turns out more Costco customers use food stamps than CEO James D. Sinegal originally thought, because after a test run earlier this year the company has decided to roll out the program nationwide.
Costco Now Accepting Food Stamps, Sort Of
By 5.27.09
Finally following the lead of its competitors, Costco will accept food stamp cards. For core food items, not other merchandise. Two New York City stores, in Astoria, Queens, and in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, will serve as test sites because of the high numbers of food stamp recipients nearby. If the program is successful, Costco will expand it to all other New York City stores, but there are no plans to expand the program to other cities or states.
