Midnight Grocery Runs Capture Economic Desperation

By Anne D'innocenzio & Dena Potter, Associated Press
Writers

AP
Octobr 6, 2010

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101006/ap_on_bi_ge/us_midnight_run

Fredericksburg, Va.

Once a month, just after midnight, the beeping checkout
scanners at a Walmart just off Interstate 95 come alive
in a chorus of financial desperation.

Here and at grocery stores across the country, the
chimes come just after food stamps and other monthly
government benefits drop into the accounts of shoppers
who have been rationing things like milk, ground beef
and toilet paper and can finally stock up again.

Shoppers mill around the store after 11 p.m., killing
time until their accounts are replenished. When
midnight strikes, they rush for the checkout counter.

"The kids are sleeping, so we go do what we've gotta
do. Money is tight," Martin Young said as he and his
wife pushed two carts piled high with ground beef,
toilet paper and other items.

The couple said they need food-stamp benefits, which
are electronically deposited onto debit cards, because
his job as a restaurant server doesn't quite cover
expenses for their five children.

"We try to get here between 10:30 and 11 because we
know we've got a lot of stuff to get. That way by 12
o'clock we're at the line cashing out and done," he
said.

More than a year after the technical end of the Great
Recession, millions of Americans still have a hard time
stretching their dollars until the first of the month,
or even the next payday.

[Continue reading this article at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101006/ap_on_bi_ge/us_midnight_run]

_____________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest
to people on the left that will help them to
interpret the world and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]
Submit via the Web: portside.org/submit
Frequently asked questions: portside.org/faq
Subscribe: portside.org/subscribe
Unsubscribe: portside.org/unsubscribe
Account assistance: portside.org/contact
Search the archives: portside.org/archive