Walmart locations in Mansfield and Springhill, Louisiana had to call in for police assistance over the weekend when a systematic error in the Electronic Benefit Transfer System, and a bad decision from Walmart’s corporate office, caused a run on food supplies at the stores.
The glitch, caused by a power outage at Xerox, took hours to correct and affected millions of households over 17 states.
Around 7PM Saturday evening, the two locations noted that EBT cards were not displaying any limits on their spending so they contacted the corporate office for guidance on what to do. A Walmart spokesman acknowledged that they gave the go ahead for the two stores to allow the usage of the cards even though there was no limit on food purchases.
This decision triggered many EBT card holders to load up on all the groceries they could, clearing out entire shelves (as seen above), before the system was restored. Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd told KSLA:
“I saw people drag out eight to ten grocery carts. It was definitely worse than Black Friday. It was worse than anything we had ever seen in this town.”
Lynd made sure to note that folks never got unruly and that the police presence was simply to assist with maintaining order. An employee of one of the stores added that they were forced to stop selling food around 9PM because everything was gone.
After the news and videos circulated, some EBT card holders on hand contacted KSLA to let them know that not everyone participated in the free for all:
“The first thing I thought of was, rib eye steak tonight instead of ramen noodles, but if we would have done that, I would have felt too guilty,” one unidentified man said while an unidentified woman added, “I could have easily walked back and went slap crazy and got all sorts of stuff, but I am conscious of the fact that this isn’t my money.”
At the Springhill location, a vast number of stuffed-to-the-brim shopping carts were simply left abandoned in the aisles when customers learned that limits had been restored.
A spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services stated Walmart chose not to adhere to the existing emergency policy which limits all sales during a system outage to no more than $50. ABCNews reported that Walmart will be held responsible for any overspending done by EBT card holders.
HT: Gawker
