You see a lot of things while working in retail, especially when you work at a female “tween” clothing store. There are the regulars, the newbies to the store and the brats that get dropped off with $100 of daddy’s money. People can be nasty and rude all they want, but nothing bugs me more than when a prissy, well-dressed wife hands me a $300 pile of clothing and then a Pennsylvania Access card.

If you have not heard of it before, an Electrical Benefits Transfer (EBT) Card is a green plastic card used to electronically charge food stamps. In Pennsylvania, it’s called an Access card. It helps low-income people buy groceries and items like coffee, spices and seeds to grow your own food. It can also pay for heat, rent and childcare. It works like a debit card and can be used at most grocery stores, farmers’ markets and corner stores. However, it cannot buy hot, prepared foods, alcohol, cigarettes, or diapers. So how is it that people can use these cards to purchase name brand clothing?

I’ve been seeing these cards more and more frequently. As of August 2011, 1.7 million people in Pennsylvania use these benefits. The first time a customer handed me an Access card I did not think it would even be accepted. I suppose our registers are by no means biased toward any form of money.

We need to be more self-reliant is what it comes down to. Flip a burger if it gets you by. There are jobs out there America, but you’re just too lazy to fill them, yet you wonder why immigrants are “stealing American jobs?” They don’t care what job they are doing as long as they are getting a paycheck. I’m all for helping others, but we shouldn’t be so eager to help those who aren’t willing to do even a little bit of work.

Our government is handing out free money to people who are essentially throwing it away.  Meanwhile we run out of funding to support those who lost their entire livelihood in the flood. There needs to be a change to our welfare system. We need to watch these people more closely.

The supposed fraud rate for these cards, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, is contained at 1 percent. “According to the USDA, the small amount of fraud that continues is usually on the part of retailers.” Yeah, okay. You’re telling me that the woman that came into the store today buying a heap of clothing really deserves to be on food stamps? If you have a low income you probably shouldn’t be buying an outrageously priced pile of clothes.

Listen, welfare queen, reach your manicured hands into your Coach wallet and pull out the money we all know you have in there.