We all know that no one wants to have to ask the government—or anyone else for that matter—for help, but sometimes we have to. However, there seems to be an unfair stigma in this country regarding people who need that sort of help. It doesn’t help when they are deemed lazy moochers who lack responsibility by the Republican presidential nominee and his wealthy gang. This GOP hate mongering results in resentment by misinformed individuals who feel like they are working only to pay for those they deem too lazy to work for a living. Cindy Nerger of Warner Robins knows just how it feels to be judged unfairly, because of what happened to her in a Kroger grocery store recently.
Nerger went grocery shopping at the Kroger off Watson Boulevard late last Tuesday night, and when she got to the register, she was told that her food stamps did not cover all of the items in her cart.
“He told me I owed him 10 dollars and some change. I am not exactly sure what it was, but I told him, I said I am sorry sir, but there is nothing in my cart that is not covered by food stamps,” Nerger said.
According to a local news station, Nerger and Kroger employees went back and forth for roughly half an hour on whether or not all of her items were covered by her food stamp assistance, when a manager finally acknowledged that she was right about her purchases.
“ I was upset, so I was like, you know, I told that it was covered under food stamps, you know, so, there was no need for all of this, you know, and he said, ‘Well excuse me that I work for a living and don’t rely on food stamps like you,” Nerger said.
She said that the comment humiliated her.
“I honestly was angry. I was angry at first, but it turned into tears because when I turned around and I saw the people there I was like, oh my goodness, and I just started crying,” Nerger said.
Nerger has to take 12 hours of dialysis treatment every day, and she also cares for the elderly grandmother who raised her. She has been on a waiting list for a kidney transplant for five years, and obviously, due to her illness, cannot work. Due to the fact that the family relies completely upon her husband’s income to survive, they get government assistance in the form of food stamps.
Cindy Nerger is no lazy bum, though, like this Kroger manager implied. She worked from the time she was 15 years old until her kidneys failed.
A spokesman for Kroger, Glynn Jenkins, told 13WMAZ that he could not verify exactly what occurred, but that they are challenging Nerger’s claims. He says that Kroger employees who witnessed the exchange will be spoken to.
On Friday, the company sent this statement:
“We deeply regret that a Kroger customer had an unpleasant shopping experience. Kroger is conducting an ongoing investigation, and look forward to resolving the customer’s concern. We hope she will continue to shop at Kroger in the future.”
Nerger said that she was contacted by Kroger’s corporate office regarding her experience, and was offered a $15 gift card to come back to Kroger.
“I told them, ‘No thank you,” she said.
I can’t say I blame her. $15 is a complete insult when it comes to that kind of experience. The manager should be fired and Kroger should be paying for the Nerger family’s groceries for a year. Then, after that and a very public apology, they might consider going back. Maybe. I am personally not so sure I would.
UPDATE: MANAGER TRANSFERRED
Kroger has just released this statement:
“We deeply regret that a Kroger customer had an unpleasant shopping experience. After an internal investigation, we have decided to transfer the co-manager to another location. We wish the customer well and hope she will consider making Kroger her destination to shop in the future.”
I agree, groceries for a year, and they should be FIRED !!! HOW dare they judge someone like that, small minded people is what’s wrong with the damn world anyway
Manager was ‘transferred’? So they can continue their vile prejudice elsewhere? Nice… Not the place for someone who works for & with the public, is Kroger that desperate for store managers? That person might consider working in a rock lab and not with people. Do not judge what you do not understand and certainly people you do not know.
You’re right, a transfer? WTF?? FIRE HIM. I don’t understand this, unless they feared a wrongful termination suit.
I went through some similar experience 20 years ago. I had to go shopping and had with me my 5 year old son and 3 children I was babysitting, plus I was pregnant myself. When I pulled out my food stamps, the lady behind me in line said “Well, if you kept your legs closed and stopped having all these kids, maybe I wouldn’t be paying for your groceries with my taxes.”
I got so mad I turned around and explained it to her: “I’m pregnant despite the fact that I was on the Pill, my doctor put me on bed rest so I don’t lose this baby but somebody’s got to get the shopping done, my husband works 2 jobs because I’m not allowed to work, yet I’m babysitting 3 of these kids to try to make us a little extra money even though I might lose my baby because I’m doing too much. Here, you want YOUR food stamps back?”
You could have heard a pin drop in that store.
Hey Lisa, good for you for standing up for yourself! People are so judgmental, and most of the time they don’t even know what the hell hey are talking about! I really admire you for putting that nosy broad in her place in front of all of those people.
They should sack the manager, and then he can live on food stamps.
I am disabled and my pharmacist just told me that the drastic cuts Illinois Mediciad is good because it cuts down on handouts. When I told him how I felt about that, he said he it wasn’t political ans wasn’t talking about me, I am going to change pharmacies.
Maybe I’m jaded, but I would like to know what the items in question were. My gut says Doritos.
What business is it of yours what she was buying? That isn’t even the issue here. The issue is the manager’s comment, and the deliberate attempt to humiliate a paying customer (no matter the method of payment).
Further, this woman has perfectly legitimate reasoning for being on food stamps- not that her (or anyone’s) reasons are anyone’s business but theirs and their case worker’s.
You don’t know that, and if she’s on dialysis then she has to watch her salt. So, no she probably isn’t buying Doritos. Furthermore, that ignorant comment shows you have no clue what steroids and dialysis can do to someone’s body. She’s not fat. She’s swollen and has moon face from steroids.
Anyone can lease a Mercedes, drive around, and your neighbors will think you are rich. Whether it is a fancy car or food stamps, we are all too quick to judge before the full story is known.
No, actually we don’t all judge people for using food stamps. Not everyone is an asshole.
BTW, I have worked for Kroger, and happily I worked under a manager that would never have done what the A-hole here did, nor would he have put up with a manager or employee who did.
But I can also predict where this particular manager was transferred – to a store in an upper class neighborhood where no one would be on food stamps. I worked at such a store, in the pharmacy. It was in our job description to ALWAYS offer generic drugs; if I did not consistently do this I could be fired. Yet one day when I did this, a customer got very offended and told me, “This is ****** (name of town) and we don’t DO generics!” Yeah, and I bet her poop doesn’t stink either. That’s the kind of store this manager will be sent to, and I hope he is happy with customers who will look down on HIM for a change.
My 87-year-old mother has swallowed this poison, though she takes and uses her social security, medicare and TriCare (my father was a retired officer). She had the gall to call my niece a parasite because they got tax money back (niece has four children, one learning disabled, and home-schools) that ‘they had not earned, I’m paying for THEM! (emulate petulant voice of a rich woman here.)
I had to leave. I had no words when she said that.
I became disabled this spring (lost a foot) but went back to work, then got furloughed because it is ‘seasonal’ and we ran out of work. Mom wants me to try and get disability pay. This croggles my mind, after her statement about my niece being a parasite.