Walmart food stamps glitch leaves EBT cards with no limit: Chaos ensues
A Walmart food stamp frenzy on Saturday started when the food stamp EBT cards went down in 17 states for a good portion of the day, but for some reason it did the opposite in two Walmart stores in Louisiana. For a few hours at these Walmart stores, the food stamp EBT cards had no limit. People could buy as much as they wanted and as you can imagine, they did, according to ABC News on Oct. 14. Now it looks as if Walmart is stuck with a very large bill.
Chaos broke out as the people grabbed every edible item that food stamps would buy and packed their cars with enough groceries to feed a small army. The two Walmart stores in Louisiana where this occurred had to call the police to keep things under control. While there weren’t any problems that warranted an arrest, the stores were like a madhouse
As quickly as this started, it stopped. All it took was an announcement over the Walmarts' intercom to say that the food stamp EBT cards were now reflecting the correct balances in the cards and that was the end to a free-for-all shopping event. People left hundreds of shopping carts filled to the top with food in the store and walked out. The abandoned carts had many perishables in them that had to be tossed, so this event grew even more costly for Walmart.
The food stamp people said that in such an emergency when EBT cards are not working, each person is allowed an emergency shopping charge of no more than $50. If the store refuses to do this, they are responsible for anything above the $50. It looks like Saturday afternoon shopping at Walmart cost the store a small fortune.