How would you react ?

[Ken L]

I was in my local Asda yesterday.

Two guys in front of me are dressed in leather coats, Levi jeans and Nike shoes. Both are dripping with gold and sporting the latest 3G type phones.

Both are very fit and healthy and obviously have fresh haircuts.

Both were speaking in a language that was clearly not English - in the Black Country, it's sometimes hard to tell.

The stuff going through the till is top notch - Organic fruit and veg, fresh steak, the works.

Once the goods have been skanned, they are told that the bill is a little over £70 and they start to pay for it WITH £2, £1 AND 50p LUNCHEON VOUCHERS !

 

Scanning these things into the till took 4 or 5 minutes and the girl on the desk appologised to me for the delay.

 

As the two swaggered off, she looked up at me and said "Youve just paid for that".

 

BTW. This is anything but an uncommon occurance. Something similar has happened on three of my last visits to the store. On another occasion, there was another guy between me and the chappie with the vouchers and he got VERY upset.

Edited May 7, 2006 by Ken L

[Emz]

very odd, I'd have thought that they would just have paid on a credit / debit card very odd..

[deanbmw]

yo cor say that, i con spake as good as any ov um, an thay con understond wot im on abaart.

 

Well ken thats sandwell for ya i suppose. Muti cultural and diverce as ever.

[Guest Jan V]

Got to admit it is upsetting when the person in front of me at the grocery store buys all sorts of high-priced items we wouldn't be buying any time soon and then pulls out their food stamps/vouchers. AND they have 4-5 kids, within a year or so of each other in age. and one knows hard earned taxes paid for those kids to be delivered. Something drastically wrong with the system no matter where you go.

[Ken L]

Jan, These particular vouchers were issued by the UK Government.

[Guest Jan V]

Jan, These particular vouchers were issued by the UK Government.

 

Yep, the vouchers I was talking about were issued by our government. Don't even need to be a citizen to get them.

[Brian Carragher]

Is it the method of payment you object to, the wait whilst the vouchers were scanned ,or the fact that vouchers were used in the first place. If the same people had paid with real folding paper money are you saying that , that would have been alright and not worthy of comment

[Ken L]

What I object to is so called assylum seekers living the high life whilst old folks are left with no services.

[DavyR]

These were probably failed asylum seekers "stuck" between two branches of the Home Office, the one which says they have to return home and the other which says they can't for various reasons. The government issues them with £35 worth of luncheon vouchers each per week, to cover all needs (including transport, which they can't be used for). That's all they're officially issued with and a BBC documentary found that, just as with British dossers in the 1930s, some outlets (obviously not Asda) were discovered to be refusing to honour the face value of the vouchers, knowing that the bearer has no choice but to accept.

 

No, they shouldn't be here in the first place and yes, they should be sent back regardless, but whilst they *are* here, it's preferable to have them spnding vouchers rather than go underground and turn to crime instead.

 

The government badly needs to get its act together regarding who is and isn't allowed into the country, but they've probably calculated the cost of plugging the gaps in all the possible points of entry and decided that it's cheaper to carry on issuing the vouchers.

[Ken L]

it's preferable to have them spnding vouchers rather than go underground and turn to crime instead.

Given the clothing, general swagger and contempt with which the goods were paid for Davey, I'd guess that they've done both. A case of having our cake and eating it.