The New York Times’ City Room Blog has put warehouse retailer Costco in the spotlight by revealing that they don’t accept food stamps.  According to Costco, their reasons for not accepting food stamps have to do with the necessary equipment being too expensive, the fact that they operate on a membership protocol (which they feel many on food stamps would be unable to join) and their thought that they wouldn’t be able to meet government qualifications.

The Times does a pretty good job of debunking Costco’s excuses and more than that they successfully explain why Costco accepting food stamps is actually important.

For example, there is a Costco on Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City, Queens.  Within walking distance of this Costco are 30,000+ residents of the Queensbridge, Ravenswood and Astoria Homes, three public housing projects.   I worked for 2+ years in the Queensbirdge neighborhood, teaching video at a local settlement house, and I feel like I can safely say that giving Queensbirdge residents the option of shopping at Costco would greatly benefit them.

In the direct vicinity of the neighborhood there is a grocery store that is quite lacking in healthy food options, a fried fish restaurant, a Chinese restaurant and a pizza/chicken.fries place.  These options are cheap and nearby and many of the residents chose them solely on this basis.  To have a nearby store that accepted food stamps, which many people are on, could start the show process of getting people to change how they shop for food and eat. I was always amazed at how the kids reacted when I brought my own food in to eat.  One of my students would always comment on how I wasn’t eating healthy because I was eating vegetables. About how I needed to eat some fried chicken.  You would think he was joking or being difficult. I don’t think he was, I think he was saying what he thought to be true.

Also it just seems wrong to put a big box store in a neighborhood that can’t actually serve the neighborhood.

As Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger points out:

“It is inexplicable why Costco clings to a policy that is against both their public interest and the company’s own self-interest. More than one million New Yorkers a year use more than one billion dollars worth of food stamps benefits. I can’t understand why Costco is essentially placing a sign in their window that says ‘Your Business Not Wanted.”

Me too. Sigh.  I don’t understand either.