Is It fair that a convenience store clerk to lose her job.After she refused to take a customer’s Electronic Balance Transfer card to pay for cigarettes?
Steverno~POTL~PWCM~JLA
2012/06/28 02:51:55
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113 votes
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14 votes
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57 votes
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PETERBOROUGH — Jackie R. Whiton of Antrim had been a six-year employee at the Big Apple convenience store in Peterborough until a single transaction sent her job up in smoke.
The store clerk was fired after she refused to take a customer’s Electronic Balance Transfer card to pay for cigarettes.
Whiton said a young man came in to the store to buy two packs or cigarettes on May 29. When she asked him for his ID, he handed her his EBT card.
EBT cards are used for both food and cash assistance programs. There are two types of cards: one can only be used for food. The other can be spent on anything and used just like a debit card.
Whiton said she did not think EBT cards could be used to purchase cigarettes and refused to sell to him. The two “had a little go-around” as the line got longer behind him, said Whiton.
“I made the statement, ‘do you think myself, that lady and that gentlemen should pay for your cigarettes?’ and he responded ‘yes,’ ” Whiton said.
The next day Whiton said the customer’s foster mother came to the store to complain. Whiton received a call later that day from the company’s home office in Maine, telling her it had received a complaint about her and reprimanded her.
“I said I would bow out gracefully and give my notice because I didn’t want to be a part of it. I’m 65 years old, you know?” Whiton said.
Charles E. Wilkins, the general manager of the C.N. Brown Co. that runs the stores, said the EBT cards in the cash phase could be used for any items, including alcohol, tobacco and gambling. Wilkins said the company gave Whiton the option of staying but she said she would not accept the cards anymore.
“She didn’t think it was right and just wasn’t going to sell to people in that program anymore,” Wilkins said.
Whiton said when she came to work the next day, her manager asked her how much notice she was giving. When she responded “a week,” she was told the home office had just called and fired her.
Wilkins said she would have had to accept the cards within that week.
Whiton said she was not looking for another job.
Whiton said she does not object to using the programs for food assistance, but does not think a person should be able to use public funds to buy cigarettes.
“They can’t even buy toilet paper with the EBT grocery cards but they can buy beer and cigarettes with the EBT cash cards,” Whiton said, “Go figure.”
Read More: http://www.sentinelsource.com/news/local/clerk-los...
Top Opinion
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Using a welfare card for cigarettes is wrong because....
+14We pay for their food, we do not need to be buying them cigarettes, gambling or booze. Need to go back to the old system. Go down to a federal building and pick up commodities. This welfare system is disgusting.
Now is it ok to use an ebt card for cigarettes? Morally? Hell no. THAT is NOT what we the people who pay those benefits give them to someone for. Legally? Must be or this would not have been an issue.
The right thing to do is change the law. And that is not done at the store level. It CAN be started at the store level. Set out a petition and ask for signatures. Lobby for it if your boss is ok with that. But a clerk doesn't have the authority to do what she did.
She quit.
Anyway, it's not the business of the establishment to dictate morals to its customers.
Only law, like if it's illegal to sell alcohol to minors, or after a certain hour.
However, they CAN place a sign in the window saying EBT cards will only be honored for food purchases. That way, card holders can choose not to buy there.
But if they have the status of a credit card, then I think the store does not have to take them.
The problem comes up if the store wants to limit what they by with the unlimited EBT card.
You know, I think the best way to fight this is to publish the idiocy. Both here, Youtube, and everywhere else.
It is not her job to do so, nor is it any of her business.
The key word in the story is "...Whiton said she did not THINK EBT cards could be used.."
She has no business expressing her OPINION by denying the sale.
Try job training!
If she was "...in charge of how the store recieves its moneys" then she should have known the difference between the cards.
My unemployment came on a card for the couple of months I got it, and now my child support does since I had to get the man involved in making him pay the child support. The child support especially is NOT gov money.
All you can buy is food on the card. You can buy cokes and chips, but not dish soap......I used to be on FS when I was in school and had young kids. Used to make me so mad. Steak, but no toilet paper. I see their point, not everyone would stick to soap and TP if non food groceries were ok, but it is still (was) frustrating.
She was offered her job back, but refused to go back to work. She should not get unemployment benefits as she refused to work.