Midnight Grocery Madness
Filed in archive General on July 3, 2008

CBS News has been running a series of reports about "The Other America" recently. The way things are going, it might soon be titled "Most of America". Anyway, this week they visited a supermarket on the south side of Chicago that gets a midnight rush on the first of every month - that's when the money that used to be "food stamps" gets loaded electronically on to the debit cards that are now used.
What I found interesting about the report - and it's to CBS' credit that they point this out - is that many of the people using the food stamp money are employed, and employed in "respected" industries such as health care. They can't be brushed off as lazy or stupid; they're working for a living and can't make ends meet with the rising costs of food, gas, etc. It's kind of scary.
Anyway, if I can handle the technology, you should be able to watch below. A little sobering video as we prepare to celebrate our nation's birth...

Permalink: Midnight Grocery Madness
Tags: finance grocery 2007 money madness midnight+grocery grocery+madness yours+here
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Response from:
Mark
(07/04/08 12:37am)
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Having worked for years in a rural grocery store that had many customers using food stamps, I know that a majority of the people would use their food stamps for food products, but spend their cash on junk food, soda, cigarettes and alcohol which can not be purchased with food stamps.
I think that makes them irresponsible or more accurately, abusers of the system.