# Security beats man at Whole Foods over EBT card **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 6, 2015, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141 "2015-09-06T02:47:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/1 "2015-09-06T02:47:23Z")
ok they used to be called food stamps. Now it’s a EBT card that’s used just like a cc in the store’s card scanner terminal. I’ve been in grocery lines behind people using them. It’s no big deal for the cashier anymore. There’s a few restricted items recipients can’t buy with the EBT. 😕 I know Whole [DEL]Paycheck[/DEL] Foods is pretty elitist but a quick check around the web indicates they will take EBT. I found several sources that claims they do take EBT. Here’s one cite. > **[List of Grocery Stores that accept Food Stamps - Food Stamps Now](https://foodstampsnow.com/list-grocery-stores-accept-food-stamps/)** > > Here is a List of Grocery Stores that accept Food Stamps in California, Florida, Oregon, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, New York and More. Did they really have to beat the guy into a bloody pulp for trying to use one? WTH Whole Foods? Why would you refuse this guy’s EBT? I hope this guy finds a good lawyer and sues. These photos should easily garner $100,000 in a lawsuit. The guy deserves every cent and more. Not to mention criminal charges brought against that asshole rent a cop guard they employed. > **[Whole Foods security guard beats up man in bloody one-sided fight after...](https://www.nydailynews.com/2015/09/05/whole-foods-security-guard-beats-up-man-in-bloody-one-sided-fight-after-argument-at-oakland-store-witness-warning-graphic-images/)** > > A Whole Foods security guard hospitalized a customer in a beating after an argument at an Oakland, Calif. store on Thursday night, according to reports. The guard slammed the man against concrete p… > [@](#): > > But witness Zoe Marks accused the guard of turning a dispute at the checkout area of the Bay Place store into a “very asymmetrical, one-sided attack” in an interview with KPIX. The customer was “trying to buy groceries with his EBT card and ended up in a stretcher,” Marks wrote in her Facebook post. She also took graphic photos of the man lying facedown on the pavement outside the store. ---
**Author:** ![get\_lives](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@get\_lives](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/get_lives)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/2 "2015-09-06T02:53:22Z")
When you hire these kinds of people for security and police work, this is what you get. You can’t hire the blind to fly planes, or the deaf to tune pianos. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/3 "2015-09-06T02:57:22Z")
The witness says in the video that none of the Whole Foods foods even bothered calling for an ambulance. The guy is lying there in a obvious pool of blood. That’s just screwed up and so wrong. The soccer mom witness comes across quite credible in the interview. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/4 "2015-09-06T02:59:30Z")
You didn’t like to the article so I don’t have the whole story (or whatever story the article presents), but I have a friend that said when she used her EBT card at Whole Foods she’d get dirty looks from the cashiers. It was enough that she did her homework to find out if it was any kind of a hassle to accept them (and like you found out, it wasn’t…and she confirmed with me (I accept them at my store, they’re not), and wrote corporate a letter telling them that they need to retrain their cashiers on how to handle people with EBT cards and in the mean time, she’ll be taking her money elsewhere. Interesting case with her. She’s quite well-to-do and makes plenty of money, she (and I don’t know all the details) ended up on food stamps because of an accident slashed her income for a year or so. I’m guessing some of the dirty looks were what she presumed ‘if you’re so poor, maybe you shouldn’t be shopping here’, but I’ll bet some of them were ‘what’s a pretty girl like you with Coach bag and nice hair doing with an EBT card?’. There’s ways to get them and some of those cashiers probably just assumed hers wasn’t quite legit. As she mentioned in her letter, the cashiers just need to swipe the card and keep their snarky comments and eye rolls to themselves. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/5 "2015-09-06T03:01:44Z")
The article link is directly above the quote. There’s a video with the soccer mom witness in it too that’s worth watching. here it is again > **[Whole Foods security guard beats up man in bloody one-sided fight after...](https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/foods-guard-beats-oakland-man-witness-article-1.2349743)** > > A Whole Foods security guard hospitalized a customer in a beating after an argument at an Oakland, Calif. store on Thursday night. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/6 "2015-09-06T03:07:30Z")
The story you linked to said the man apparently tried to assault a cashier. He wasn’t beaten up for trying to use an EBT card. I don’t condone the security guard’s actions, he definitely went overboard. But there’s always more to the story. Let’s wait until some facts are in instead of relying on somebody’s account on Facebook. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/7 "2015-09-06T03:08:17Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > The article link is directly above the quote. There’s a video with the soccer mom witness in it too worth watching. > > here it is again > [Whole Foods security guard beats up man in bloody one-sided fight after argument at Oakland store: witness (WARNING – GRAPHIC IMAGES) – New York Daily News](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/foods-guard-beats-oakland-man-witness-article-1.2349743) Yes, that got edited in while I was typing. Now that I’ve read it and watched the video can you tell me what your title means? “Security beats man at Whole Foods over EBT card” I feel kind of silly writing that whole thing and finding out, at least so far, from what you linked to, the only time and EBT card comes into play is that he used one. Why do you think that the security guy beat him up over it? Did I miss something? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/8 "2015-09-06T03:13:43Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Yes, that got edited in while I was typing. > Now that I’ve read it and watched the video can you tell me what your title means? > > “Security beats man at Whole Foods over EBT card” > > I feel kind of silly writing that whole thing and finding out, at least so far, from what you linked to, the only time and EBT card comes into play is that he used one. Why do you think that the security guy beat him up over it? > Did I miss something? From the article: > [@](#): > > The private security guard, who has been “permanently removed” from Whole Foods, “interceded when the customer made physical contact with a team member,” Quite different from what **aceplace** is insinuating. Still, I agree that beating the hell out of the guy was undoubtedly an over-reaction. But the incident is still under investigation. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/9 "2015-09-06T03:17:26Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > From the article: > > Quite different from what **aceplace** is insinuating. Still, I agree that beating the hell out of the guy was probably an over-reaction. But the incident is still under investigation. It has nothing whatsoever to do with what aceplace said. Aceplace specifically said that the man was beat up for using his EBT card. The article he linked to, however, doesn’t mention it, at all. Nowhere. Not once. It doesn’t say he was beaten up for using his EBT card anymore than it says he was beaten up for buying groceries or for shopping at Whole Foods. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/10 "2015-09-06T03:23:40Z")
People, people,people read for content. This is the same witness interviewed in the video. This was a dispute in the checkout regarding use of an EBT. What the dispute was, I don’t know. Maybe a few items that weren’t allowed on the card? A bad card? whatever, it was wasn’t worth beating the guy. > [@](#): > > But witness Zoe Marks accused the guard of turning a dispute at the checkout area of the Bay Place store into a “very asymmetrical, one-sided attack” in an interview with KPIX. The customer was “trying to buy groceries with his EBT card and ended up in a stretcher, Zoe’s social media post that lead to her interview with the local tv station. > [@](#): > > The guard locked him out of the store despite the fact he was immobile. Not a single employee called the paramedics. > He was trying to buy groceries with his EBT card and ended up in a stretcher. > > We spent an hour giving my written statement to the police, who were professional and polite. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/11 "2015-09-06T03:26:06Z")
Really, could you give me the dialogue from the argument? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/12 "2015-09-06T03:28:31Z")
Maybe his EBT card was declining. Maybe he was trying to use it to buy restricted items. Maybe he didn’t have enough money on it but _swears_ they always put the money on on the first of the month. I run a store, I have the arguments every day. Maybe the argument had nothing to do with the EBT card. Unless you have another source, you’re guessing and quoting that same line over and over won’t change it. I’m not saying you might not be right, but you’re still jumping to conclusions and that’s not fair. ETA: If that quote was “trying to buy groceries with his debit card and ended up in a stretcher" would you still make the same assumptions? My guess, as of right now, is that it’ll end up being one of the things I said that tipped it off. Basically, the card declining. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/13 "2015-09-06T03:32:19Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > People, people,people read for content. This is the same witness interviewed in the video. This was a dispute in the checkout regarding use of an EBT. What the dispute was, I don’t know. Maybe a few items that weren’t allowed on the card? A bad card? whatever, it was wasn’t worth beating the guy. > > Zoe’s social media post that lead to her interview with the local tv station. I’ll admit the man tried to use an EBT card and ended up getting beat up. But nowhere does it say he was beat up _for_ using an EBT card. He was beat up for some dispute which hasn’t been made apparent yet. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/14 "2015-09-06T03:33:56Z")
The witness seems credible to me. Quite sincere and very concerned. She spent a full hour making a police report. I don’t think she’s lying. Does it matter if she quotes verbatim the argument? I’ve witnessed cashiers removing items that weren’t allowed on EBT. Sometimes the person gets upset. Not violent or loud. But upset. I’d never expect some guard to come over and beat the crap out of the person. I hope that I’m never in Zoe’s position. That must have been terrible to witness. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/15 "2015-09-06T03:41:26Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > The witness seems credible to me. Quite sincere and very concerned. She spent a full hour making a police report. I don’t think she’s lying. Does it matter if she quotes verbatim the argument? > > I’ve witnessed cashiers removing items that weren’t allowed on EBT. Sometimes the person gets upset. Not violent or loud. But upset. I’d never expect some guard to come over and beat the crap out of the person. I hope that I’m never in Zoe’s position. That must have been terrible to witness. Did you miss the part where the man is accused of making physical contact with a “team member,” presumably the cashier he was having the dispute with? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/16 "2015-09-06T03:44:06Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Did you miss the part where the man is accused of making physical contact with a “team member,” presumably the cashier he was having the dispute with? That is Whole Foods assertion. Corporate CYA imho The witness gave me the impression it was primarily a verbal dispute. But it’s not entirely clear what she meant by “very asymmetrical, one-sided attack”. 😃 only Yuppies understand that language. LOL Maybe the guy did touch the cashier’s arm or hand? Does that give the guard the right to beat him into a bloody pulp and then not even call an ambulance? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/17 "2015-09-06T03:48:32Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > The witness seems credible to me. Quite sincere and very concerned. She spent a full hour making a police report. I don’t think she’s lying. Does it matter if she quotes verbatim the argument? > > I’ve witnessed cashiers removing items that weren’t allowed on EBT. Sometimes the person gets upset. Not violent or loud. But upset. I’d never expect some guard to come over and beat the crap out of the person. I hope that I’m never in Zoe’s position. That must have been terrible to witness. We all agree that the guard was way out of line. What I’m saying is that the guard didn’t beat him up _for_ using an EBT card, which is what I’m inferring from you: > [@](#): > > Did they really have to beat the guy into a bloody pulp for trying to use one? WTH Whole Foods? Unless you know what the argument was about, specifically, you’re guessing. What did the “soccer mom” say that makes you feel he was beaten up for using an EBT card? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/18 "2015-09-06T03:48:33Z")
I’m not saying that gives him the right. But why do you doubt the Whole Foods spokesperson? There are two sides to every story. Right now it’s mostly one-sided. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/19 "2015-09-06T03:54:46Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > We all agree that the guard was way out of line. What I’m saying is that the guard didn’t beat him up _for_ using an EBT card, which is what I’m inferring from you: > Unless you know what the argument was about, specifically, you’re guessing. What did the “soccer mom” say that makes you feel he was beaten up for using an EBT card? It seems blatantly obvious what the witness is implying. She specifically says the dispute was over the EBT card. The exact words that triggered that dispute weren’t reported. I guess if you want to infer that somehow out of the blue some other thing caused the dispute to escalate then go for it. I can’t imagine what else it could be. I doubt the entire dispute lasted more than a minute or two. There wasn’t much time for them to argue about much else. But yeah, you got me. Technically we don’t know exactly what was said. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141/20 "2015-09-06T03:58:14Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I’m not saying that gives him the right. But why do you doubt the Whole Foods spokesperson? There are two sides to every story. Right now it’s mostly one-sided. It’s not even one sided, honestly. So far, we have a few witnesses that say that there was some kind of small argument which ended with the guard slamming the guy around. That and that the guy was using an EBT card is literally all we know. Anything else is speculation. IMO, to be one sided we’d have to hear from the guard or the victim or the cashier. We really don’t know anything yet. It’s like coming up on an accident scene and someone says ‘that car veered into oncoming traffic and smashed into those other 4 cars and then drove into the window of that store’. You can take all the guesses you want, but when you say ‘she’s drunk’ or ‘he was texting’, it’s just a guess, no matter how loud you say it and how many people you convince. Even if the person WAS texting when they veered off the road, doesn’t mean it was the cause. Just like here. Just because the guy was using an EBT, doesn’t mean he was beat up for using it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/security-beats-man-at-whole-foods-over-ebt-card/730141.md?page=2)