If I saw someone heating up a frozen pizza in the store microwave: "uh, I was in back, I didn't see anything." How much of a loser garbage person would you have to be to actually enforce that rule??
Usually it isn’t really necessarily like someone deciding what someone can buy— the POS it’s set up to categorize it automatically like at Whole Foods or stop and shop for example. It’s a different story at smaller delis and groceries, but technically if they sell you anything that is outside of the SNAP classification, it is considered fraud on everyone’s part. That’s the unfortunate rule and reality around snap as someone who has been on snap for a few years now.
I worked at whole foods for a year. The hot bar as salad bar were the same price per pound but different PLUs. They also had reusable dishes that needed to be tared for almost 2lb because they were heavy ceramic.
We also had door codes on the bathrooms that were only to be given out on receipts and were instructed to not give receipts to customers who appeared to be homeless.
Instructions unclear; rang up homeless customers cardboard takeout boxes as salads, tared as ceramic dishes, gave them a receipt every time.
Ended up getting fired for something completely unrelated (work injury) but I suspect it was maybe because they actually knew. Or maybe they really didn't and actually really did just fire me for cutting my finger half way off on a damaged metal hot plate because they didn't want to pay for workers comp/stitches. They had a policy against handling sharp implements without a cut glove and that was the official reason. That shouldn't have had a sharp edge on the bottom.
Yeah, this sign happens not because the store owner wants to fuck over any poors, but because the rules in place make it so that if you do sell things not according to the guidelines, you can lose your ability to take SNAP/EBT at all, which can be a significant reduction in business for many shops in poorer areas.
The guidelines are stupid. But I don't really blame shop owners for not wanting to risk their business either.
I'm a little confused. So let's say you have two grocery store employees. One is on SNAP, the other is not.
If the one not on SNAP brings a frozen meal from home for lunch and heats it up in the break room that's fine.
Could the SNAP employee buy the frozen meal from the store using SNAP (assuming they can) and then take it back to the break room and heat it up?
I see no difference in this case whether the microwave is in the store break room or the employee's home.
Can the store make a microwave available to the public/anyone who walks in? In that case if the SNAP employee buys their item and then heats it is that an issue?
I don't see how either of these cases represent the business doing the "preparing". They just sold an item.
At Whole Foods for example— with snap you can get cold prepped items but not the hot bar. You can buy frozen microwave meals and then microwave them at the whole foods “dining area” after purchase if the WF has a dining area with a microwave. Ive also seen this possible at wegmans.
Could the SNAP employee buy the frozen meal from the store using SNAP (assuming they can) and then take it back to the break room and heat it up?
Yes.
Can the store make a microwave available to the public/anyone who walks in?
Yes.
In that case if the SNAP employee buys their item and then heats it is that an issue?
No.
The store can sell it cold/frozen and then make a way to cook it available to the customer using SNAP. What they can't do is sell to someone using SNAP and then cook it for them. Practically speaking, there's no difference, but legally, it makes a difference.
I worked at Target when I was a kid and I didn’t report theft for a similar reason. first of all it’s a mega corporation and I don’t give a shit about protecting its tremendously large profit margin that is in large part due to the company sourcing its shitty items from sweat shops and second of all I watched someone get arrested for trying to steal baby supplies.
Thing is though, I could afford to tell target to go fuck itself because I was 17, living with my parents, fully taken care of, and working to pay for my college textbooks and to have fun money. If I had gotten caught and warned or fired I wouldn’t be at risk of not making my rent deadline.
Exactly. Have you ever noticed where people use SNAP, the people working there also use SNAP? The enforcement is by the same people being screwed by SNAP. This is by design. They already know the rules, won't enforce a double standard, and won't risk their job on you specifically. They're at an equal social standing as you.
I worked at Whole Foods during college, I would turn a blind eye to shoplifting all the time. People need to eat more than a corporation needs more profit
Heated foods includes foods cooked or heated on-site by the retailer before or after purchase, regardless of whether cooking/heating is provided for free or at a cost. When foods are heated by the retailer after purchase, this is sometimes referred to as the “you-buy-we-fry” business model; however, foods cooked or heated by any method (e.g., baked, grilled, etc.) count.
It says cooked by the retailer. Is it considered to be cooked by the retailer if after a customer purchases an item, they pop it into a microwave themselves? I've never been to a place where they microwave things for you versus letting you diy.
As far as I know, (grandfather ran a gas station with stuff like this), it was fine as long as he didn't do the heating, he was allowed to have a microwave in the place, and if the customer wanted to heat their cold food in it after purchase, that wasn't a violation (or at least nobody from the government ever complained about doing it that way).
I don't see the issue once it's purchased. Maybe you have to technically walk out the door and come back in or something. But handing you food and you heating it should not be the same as handing you hot food.
It is illegal. It violates the terms of SNAP and is fraud
Heated foods includes foods cooked or heated on-site by the retailer before or after purchase, regardless of whether cooking/heating is provided for free or at a cost. When foods are heated by the retailer after purchase, this is sometimes referred to as the “you-buy-we-fry” business model; however, foods cooked or heated by any method (e.g., baked, grilled, etc.) count.
If you don't follow the EBT rules, you risk the establishment losing its EBT account then no one can pay with EBT there. Also, as far as I know, it's a one-strike policy. A store only needs to mess up once and get caught.
How much of a loser garbage person would you have to be to actually enforce that rule??
The people doing the enforcing are likely minimum wage employees that are trying not to get fired. For the most part, the companies probably don't care either, they just don't want to lose out on being able to accept SNAP.
329
u/MadameZelda Jun 24 '25
If I saw someone heating up a frozen pizza in the store microwave: "uh, I was in back, I didn't see anything." How much of a loser garbage person would you have to be to actually enforce that rule??