Serious Eats New York - newyork.seriouseats.com

Absolutely. There will be more places accepting them as the economy continues to tank. At least, I hope there will.

This is a very good move.

Absolutely. When you look at them as monetary values, food stamps already don't come close to meeting what most people would consider reasonable as a food budget for a family, and since more people are needing assistance than ever and the allocations are unlikely to go up any time soon, anything that will help people make stamps go further is a good idea.

I think its great and i wish they would extend this out to the rest of us that are in other states as well !! Our economy is down and we are needing a helping hand !

@ mhurst826 - food stamps are similar in new york, you get them on a debit card (if you receive other public assistance, that amount will also be on the same card), and yes, there are restrictions as to what you can purchase (no booze, etc.)

If you have money for a membership and you want to buy luxury items then you don't need a damn food stamp. I am calling bullshit on this one.
The average Costco shopper makes over 75K per year. Costco is not for food stamp people and as a taxpayer I am freaking offended. You get money from me in tax supplied assistance to feed your family you better go and buy it at the best price going and thats NOT at Costco. Also membership fees are NOT a food stamp item.
Also who said a food stamp does not meet the needs. When last I was behind someone in a grocery line they had PLENTY of food on that conveyer belt, steak, meat, chicken all the staples. I was shocked and appalled at someone buying 350 bucks worth of food on assistance for a family of 4. So whoever thought they do not get enough in food stamp money think again. Our govt does WIC and food stamps and they give quite generously.
I am not for extending my exlcusive membership shopping to the those less fortunate. I am freaking not happy about it. Thank GOD I don't live in NY. Total and utter bullshit!!!!

@jerzee, the average household on foodstamps in new york city is 2-3 people and gets $163 per month...i don't know what was the situation you encountered, but i think we can agree that the average family is going to have a hard time meeting their nutritional needs on that budget (i know that i spend way more than that for myself and my husband, and i try to be conservative in my shopping).

@foodinthemouth I will be as appaulled about anything I like as often as I like. Last time I checked I did not have to ask anyone's permission. I also know for a fact many people who do not deserve/should not qualify for any public assistance and I guess that has clouded my judgement for this issue. I will not apologize for taking care of myself (aka a good living) because thats what your supposed to do. When did taking care of yourself and your family become bad? Moving right along...thanks for the insight into my ability to post on a food blog and for the sentiment.

As many of you know assistance is calculated on what info you give/can be verified by your social services department. They have a formula for it where it is you live. Not everyone gets the same amount of assistance in every state and some people get less than others.

I will however reiterate this, Costco is not a value based store. It is a luxury based shopping experience. No one on social assistance needs to be shopping there it is a miuse of publically funded tax funds. People on public assistance need to be shopping where their dollar will buy the most food which is not a Costco.

I'm kind of bummed by Jerzee's comments as well. Growing up my family was on food stamps and I know many people who still need that kind of assistance. They're not handing out fat checks and people aren't going to be using their food stamps to buy worthless shit at Cosco. Costco is NOT a luxury-based store, since when? Smart people go there to buy needed things in bulk. Are we really going to bitch about the program before it's started? Who knows who pays for the membership fees? Are you really implying that if a person can afford to pay a yearly $50 membership fee that implies that they make way too much money to be receiving food stamps? That's ridiculous. Single moms who have small mouths to feed can greatly benefit from shopping at a store that offers kitchen staples in bulk; pasta, milk, bread, whatever.

Fine, Jerzee, don't apologize for taking care of yourself or as you put it, for making a "good living because thats what your supposed to do." No one is asking you to. The problem though is that you don't seem very understanding of those who aren't living the high life and who haven't been afforded the same opportunities as you. Taking care of yourself and your family was never bad, but for some people that requires some assistance in the form of food stamps or whatever other programs are available for people who'd found themself in a rough spot. Have some compassion, for Christ sakes.

@pumpkinbear you imply many things that are assumptions. Try not to do that. My compassion is not the issue. Don't make assumptions about me based on my stance on where people on assistance should shop. It negates the issue. No one affords opportunities they earn them.
No one has to have social services either. You qualify for them or you do not. Sometimes you do not qualify for them but due to some bureaucratic bell curve you get some assistance that you should not. Fine fine. Have a cookie.

I don't have to seem to understanding. That is not a problem, it is my opinion, and you again don't have to agree with it. I am not opposed to people on assistance, I am opposed to how the assistance is administered. It is wasteful.

Costco has always been a high end luxury shopping experience. If you do not think so drop by a BJ's or a Sam's Club and then compare prices per pound and brand names. I will throw the demographic out again. The average Costco shopper makes 75K per year. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/fashion/25costco.html?_r=1&em&ex=1196226000&en=14f641af60c51647&ei=5087%0A
Shopping in bulk in a priviledge it is not a right.
I often say it is a good thing I am not in govt. The assistance has to be responsible and the people truly in need. Having a slew of kids you cannot afford is not needy, it is selfish and irresponsible. Everyone wants to talk about green, sustainable and fair trade. What about being green and responsible in your home? Would that not include not having more mouths to feed than you can afford? I believe that it does. You only can sustain what you can sustain. Then it becomes everyone else's problem and it becomes your problem and my problem and I don't agree with that a lot.
I also believe that the assistance should have to be paid back. That's right, you use it you pay it back into the pot so someone else can use it.

I consider myself a samurai shopper. I do shop at Costco but am well aware that it isn't always the cheapest. They don't accept coupons ( let alone double them) and the quantities can be overwhelming. Let the buyer beware holds as true for Costco shoppers as anywhere else. And why is it that I always come out with far more than I intended? I realise that is my problem not theirs.
Take the time to compare prices, often drugstore and supermarket sales are cheaper especially with a valuable coupon. And if you have a good street fruit seller, they are ubiquitous in New York, they are much better value without risk of spoilage.
I am happy to fund food stamps for those who need them but would much prefer they be spend wisely, rather than at an overpriced bodega or similar. And yes the $50 membership is a big initial nut but works out at less than a $1 week.

@judithuk - it's been a while since I set foot in Costco (as a single person without a car, I can't justify the $50/year membership for Costco or BJ's, though BJ's has dog food for super, super cheap) but last I did, they took manufacturer's coupons and possibly competitor's coupons as well. It was one of the discussions my sister and I had frequently after I told her BJs was better than Costco; her response was that Costco took coupons, which helped a lot as she was constantly buying baby food/diapers/that sort of stuff at the time.

I have to say that it's true, many people assume that membership-only bulk stores are super cheap, but they are not, for many staples/everyday needs. I find their meat prices (which are not organic/grass-fed/local, usually) to be really cheap, but you're stuck with a ton of it, and their food staples (pasta, canned goods) are also well-priced. But paper towels, paper goods in general? Fuhgeddaboutit, you're better off going to Home Depot when it's on sale or even CVS/Duane Reade for sales. Target, too. (Clearly I spent my formative years price-shopping and comparing so I could budget wisely for my later years...)

To step a toe into the "political" side of this conversation, though, I think it's hard for each side to understand the other when it seems like people are just reading too much into what another has said. I can't claim to understand 100% what both sides really think or mean, but I can say that from one standpoint, there are a lot of people who abuse the system and get away with it. These are the people who make it on the news and who are very visible, and it can be upsetting to people who pay their taxes and live their lives the way they feel they should be living them, and see other people taking tax money and just... not doing what they're supposed to be.

On the other hand, for each individual that makes it on the news for abuse of the system, there are many more individuals who use the system to their advantage - the way it's meant to be used - as a helping hand while they get back on their feet. They budget wisely, get back on track, get a job, and get off food stamps, as the system is intended to be temporary, not a permanent fix. But these people don't get on the news, so it can be easy to assume that everyone who is on food stamps is a scumbag that doesn't bother with trying to rejoin the working rat race.

Having said all that, however, I really don't see the issue with allowing food stamps at Costco. I don't see how it would affects anyone either way. If you are a member at Costco and are against this, can you explain to me why? Do you think it will make lines worse than they already are? I just don't understand why people are even so agitated about this specific store allowing them to use them or not.

I think it's great that Costco will accept food stamps. Think about the money people will save on basics stuff like toilet paper, milk, eggs and such. Toilet paper might be $16, but that family doesn't have to worry the rest of the month about buying toilet paper. Now, the problem might be the people that will abuse the food stamps and will use it to buy products that are not basic for a household.

Maybe Costco or NY should regulate what can be bought with food stamps.

@JerzeeTomato: I guess your definition of poor means dirty lazy people not, say, hardworking people who have lost their jobs in these tough times or suffered some other type of tragedy. If you want to complain about corruption and tax spending, fine. Whining about having to shop with people less fortunate than you is sick. You are an ass.

Claims that there are "a lot" of people who abuse the system are actual empirical questions and not at all a matter of opinion. There is research done on welfare fraud, and it's not as high as many people assume. I'm sorry to be a snip about this, but I'm a social scientist, and it gets my back up when people naturally assume there is "a lot" of fraud by people receiving welfare benfits, for example, while leaving unchallenged the way in which the poverty line is calculated, which is variable in itself.

JerzeeTomato, your comments are idiotic. The Costco membership fee is $50, but the food savings from shopping there over the course of a year equal far more than the membership fee. Which means that, if the impoverished family receiving food stamps can scratch up the $50 fee (which the government does not and will not pay for), then that family can actually make taxpayers' money go farther on their $200 or so per month in food stamps, thus (possibly) obviating the need for further increases in assistance. Why should a poor family have to pay $5/pound for hamburger at Fairway here in NYC when they can get it for $2/pound at Costco?
And the ability to pay $50 PER YEAR for a Costco membership doesn't mean that family doesn't deserve food asistance! The ability to pay $50 doesn't meant they don't need the $2400 or so they get for the year. And there are a lot of reasons why poor people might want a Costco membership. For instance, I am recently unemployed and don't have a penny to spare at the moment, but I pay for a Costco membership in part because of the food savings and in part because I don't have vision insurance and it's the absolute cheapest place for me to get eyeglasses.
And lastly, let me add that your comments about people who "have a slew of kids" are hurtful and ignorant. Most people on foodstamps don't have a slew of kids. Food stamp recipients range from the single to families to the elderly -- some of them have suffered misfortunes, and some of them are just plain struggling.

Oh, and I should add - comments like those above me castigating welfare recipients on having the gal to get a Costco membership, or making blanket statements about the type of individual who receives welfare just smacks of ignorance.

Unless Costco has changed their policy recently they only accept their own coupons ( which they send out to members at frequent intervals). They do not accept manufacturers' coupons. I was refused in Long Island City and haven't tried since.

I have volunteered with small town food banks, Catholic Charities & Feeding America (formerly 2nd Harvest) helping with food assistance programs. I can tell you...there is real need...and there are families that depend on not just food stamps, but the generosity of others to be able to feed their families.

This has been turned into a political debate on the merits of food stamps and the abuses that exist. Fair enough. I think that we would all concede that unscrupulous & dishonest people are found in all economic brackets.

And I would concede that there are people with no sense of "home economics." Stretching a dollar at the grocery store does take some knowledge & ability to cook.

For every food stamp scammer, there's a Bernie Madoff scamming investors. For every shopper on assistance loading up on "junk" there's a derivatives manager losing his or her clients money. Some people just have no ethics or common sense.

The point of this post is not about any of that. That's a different debate for a different forum (IMHO). To me, it is about those needy people that need help....and are grateful for that help.

I'm not a Costco shopper...not my thing. But when I've gone with friends, I've seen staples like canned vegetables, pasta, flour, yeast, rice, beans, etc....at prices comparable or below what you find at other grocery stores. These are the same staples that food banks try to get because they go a long way when properly used.

Costco, when shopped wisely, can stretch the grocery budget, regardless of your income. The cynical side of me thinks they simply see it as a source of income. Regardless, if it helps some honest men & woman feed their families....I'm all for it.

I remember one of the previous SE posts on how Costco, unlike Sam's Club and others, wouldn't take food stamps and what a controversy that was. I still don't think Costco should be obligated to take food stamps as long as not participating is legal, but if the company chooses to take food stamps, that's fine too.

I'm all for Costco taking food stamps. One of my high school teachers received food stamps because he could not make enough money to raise his family on a TEACHER'S salary. Would I begrudge him a Costco membership or the ability to pay for his groceries with food stamps? No.

My niece is nineteen, a single mom, goes to nursing school, WORKS part time, and receives food stamps. If she asked me to pay for a costco membership for her, I would.

But since Costcos in our state don't take food stamps, it's a moot point.

I'm with you, pumpkinbear. The way hateful words are sometimes slung around these boards smacks of the ubiquitous cowardice that the internet allows those who clearly lack empathy and who have nothing more substantial to offer than their prejudices.

@ Lisa - I agree that the amount I cited is enough for people to live off of in some places, but it's very difficult to live off that in NYC. And many of those people are forced to look to family members for help, thus making it more difficult for those family members to provide for their OWN household. It's very cyclical.

@ Renee - that's a fantastic point. Especially if they know someone with a car who would be willing to drive them once a month or so to a Costco to stock up (instead of driving them to a grocery store every week). While shopping all of the sales makes absolute sense, I think what some people might not realize is that it isn't always feasible to do that in NYC - because the grocery store with the sale you want might be so far that you would need to take the subway there and back, meaning that there is an extra $4 added on to whatever you are buying.

@judithuk - my mistake, I double checked. It's actually BJ's that accepts manufacturer coupons. Sorry for the misinformation!

If a person uses food stamps to buy staple items like rice, beans, flour and cooking oil in bulk at Costco, I applaud them. However, I myself cannot resist temptation and rarely leave Costco with only the few items I had in mind when I entered. It seems inevitable that people will waste food stamps on more luxurious items available in Costco.

What the government really should do is eliminate food stamps and just hand out food--rice, beans, flour, cooking oil, fresh vegetables, eggs, milk--along with some education on how to cook nutritionally and frugally. I live in a mixed economic area, and I see far too many people using food stamps to buy frozen dinners and desserts, which are poor choices both nutritionally and economically.

After perkymacs story I think we should all thank our lucky stars . I guess it could have been worse he could have attended The University of Iowa .

I am the product of a Southern Baptist and a Quaker, so you might imagine that I did indeed move to the middle of the pack. I don't like being taken advantage of in any way by anyone, but it happens and how I act in the face of it is how I can hope to be treated down the line. I don't understand this "I got mine, now you get your own" attitude that I have encountered on ocassion in recent years. I don't know how spiritual anyone on this thread is, but the stronger of us have been given the task of helping the 'lesser' of us when we can.

I am in Penna. and our WIC (Women-Infants &Children) program provide coupons for good, nutritious foods-peanut butter, dried beans, milk, cheese and even fresh fruits and vegetables. There is even an approved list for the cereals one can purchase.

What I object to where food stamps are concerned is that a box of Fruit Loops or Lucky Charms is acceptable, but not a bar of soap for cleansing. Maybe a little education along with the stamps would go a long way at swallowing that pill that sticks for some. Not everyone would get the education offered on cooking and nutrition, but it could help others.

God Bless to all of you who are struggling.

quit badgering jerzee, you can't argue with someone that thinks shopping at costco is a "luxury experience".