Sunday, June 26, 2011

A WIC coupon is not a license to treat people like crap!

I'm not normally profane by any means (at least not on this blog), so you'll understand just how upset I am when I say:
FUCK YOU STOP AND SHOP!  My using WIC does not mean you can treat me like I'm some idiot or a worthless piece of shit.

It's hard enough to be on WIC.  It hurts our pride, but we know it's the best thing for Garrett.  We do our best to make sure we get the items that are WIC approved (most stores have WIC written on the code on the displays so it's easy to figure out what is covered). I section everything on conveyor belt by what WIC coupon I'm using so everything is together. 

Sometimes things get mislabeled or even misshelved, but instead of an apology I get this look like I must be a piece of shit and I've made their job a pain in the ass (although most of them have that "I hate my life" look). 

Today it was milk.  A fucking quart of milk.  They had 3 milk brands and all were WIC approved.  We've checked with the WIC office before and they told us if it is labeled as WIC approved we can get it. If something is labeled and they don't honor it we have to lodge a complaint with them.   So I grab the milk.  The woman at the register gives me this look and huff and says "You can only get the store brand. The other brand is WIC approved but you can't get it."
"If it's WIC approved then I CAN get it."
"Um, No"
"Get me the manager"

She huffs at me again and rolls her eyes like I'm being the biggest bitch in the world.  The manger comes up and I explain it to him.  They've already taken the milk I was going to get and put it back.  Ben had run to get another one but grabbed the wrong size (the milk section was a mess).  So the manager sends back the bagger to get the milk this time.  A quart...remember we're getting a quart.
I take the pen and write down the names of the people I'm dealing with.  Suddenly the manager gets this tone with me...
"I didn't do anything."
"Excuse me?"
"I didn't do anything why are you writing my name down?"   Oh guy...prepare for a new asshole...
"Really, first off I was writing down the names so when I call and they ask me who I dealt with I can give them names.  Second off, now I will call corporate to lodge a complaint because at no point did you apologize to me or my husband when we both said your employee made us feel like crap.  No, you continue to stand here and give me that look of annoyance like somehow I am worth less than you because I'm on WIC."


The manager was silent.  So bagging lady comes back...with a fucking GALLON of milk.  The manager looks horrified and sends her back.  Still no apology to me or Ben for the way we've been treated. 

So we finish with the WIC and proceed to get our other groceries.  We got 4 boxes of cereal because there is a sale where you get a free coupon for milk.  I reminded Ben about it and he asked the woman at the register...
She gave him such a dirty look and said "it prints on its own".  And then practically ignored him. 

Now really, did we deserve to be treated like crap because we are on WIC?  Would it have been hard for the manager to apologize because the cashier made us feel shitty? 
Tomorrow we call WIC and the Stop and Shop corporate office to lodge complaints.  Using WIC is hard enough for people.  It doesn't give anyone the right to treat you like you are less of a person for it.






17 comments:

jamie said...

Hugs. I am SO ANGrY now just reading this.   I have other words... but...until I can  use ones with more than 4 letters, I'm just going 2 retweet your article, if that's okay w/ u

teawithfrodo said...

yes, please retweet it.  It was so upsetting for both of us.  I came home and looked at Ben and said "am I awful, did I do something so wrong?"

Terri said...

These same people who treat you like sh*t are one paycheck away from being on WIC themselves, and prefer not to see the forest for the trees. 

teawithfrodo said...

Actually, it's not too far from the projects. You'd think that they'd be more understanding but they just don't care.

Aprile Mazey said...

Wow, I feel so bad that you were treated that way. I just don't understand how people can act the way they do.

Samantha S said...

Shaw's was shit for this too. We had specific brands we could buy, had to find the cheapest of them (there's a brand of milk cheaper than the Shaw's brand, which you had to get unless it was sold out), and it still  was always a hassle. 

We used to go 45 minutes before closing because there were fewer people and the night manager seemed to be more laid back. 

WIC is a good programme, but it really needs to be revamped in a lot of ways to be a little more user friendly and have a few healthier options. 

teawithfrodo said...

I wouldn't have been so upset about the milk if they hadn't labeled the other items as being WIC approved.  even corporate at Stop and Shop told us that if it is labeled WIC then we should be able to buy it. If it's only WIC approved when there is a coupon then that is the only time the label should say WIC. 

You can't buy anything organic.  You always have to buy the unhealthiest of all the options. The cereal one gets me.  You get 36oz of cereal, but the boxes have to be at least 12 oz.  Well no one makes 12 oz boxes anymore.  And they won't even let me buy the store brand.  Only the 15 types they approve.  Original Life is approved but not Cinnamon Life, it's confusing as hell. 

I'm glad that we have WIC to help us out. But so many of the stores put us through hell every time. 
I guess we just have to write down names and call corporate to get something done.

One of the things the woman at corporate said was "they're forgetting that these are hard working people who have fallen on hard times.  They shopped at our store in good time as well.  Once the hard time has passed they aren't going to want to shop at the store that didn't care about them."

Polish Mom Photographer said...

I'm really sorry to hear about your experience. While pregnant we'd been on WIC as well and actually I can't recall any situation like that. All people were nice to us and bvery helpful BUT those stores that we used to shop were ALWAYS lacking produce that were approved by WIC, so almost everytime we went shopping we didn't buy stuff and we lost the cupons... 

teawithfrodo said...

I know that not all places were bad.  When we spoke to the corporate office they were pretty pissed at the way we'd been treated.

The Mom Pledge said...

I will never understand how people can treat others this way. So sorry you a) are in this situation in the first place and b) it is all made worse by being made to feel the way you do. Unacceptable and completely unnecessary!

Stopping by from TMP blog hop...

teawithfrodo said...

It sucks being in the situation, but we're lucky that we are getting the assistance. We're being positive about it because it's given us the time to really work on our business and get it very far along (www.granolastrolla.com)

Amy Rea said...

I have no idea what WIC as I live in Australia, but that service is appalling. I hope that the corporate offices go down on that store like a tonne of bricks!

sanitysoverrated said...

Like a lot of the others, I'm angry reading this.  I've never understood the reason that service people get attitudes about things.  Yes, your day may have been shitty, but does that mean that you need to take it out on the people you're supposed to be serving?  I tried my hardest, when I was in service, not to take my bad day out on anyone else. And I NEVER thought that someone was less because of how they paid for things.

But I do have to say, good on you for standing up for yourself!  I don't know if I could have forced the issue like you did.  I probably would have just meekly nodded and sent my husband back for another brand of milk.

Please, follow up and let us know what you hear back from corporate and from WIC. I'm hoping that you'll get some kind of satisfaction!

BTW, I'm here from TMP blog hop!

http://sanitysoverrated.blogspot.com

teawithfrodo said...

thanks for stopping by.

We didn't call WIC because it was an issue with the supermarket more than anything else.  Corporate was not happy. They planned to call up the store and make sure the manager was given more customer service training as well as a talking too.
They were also making sure everything was properly labeled.  We were encouraged to call anytime we had an issue.

me said...

So sorry to hear you had such a horrible check out experience.  This happens way too often.  Do you mind if I post a link to your blog on the WICwoes facebook page?

teawithfrodo said...

Please feel free to repost and share

Findit13 said...

Disgusting behavior...  I hope management gave them some customer service lessons (and a kick in the ass). Sorry you had to endure that.