Chapter 652: Chapter 296 Food Stamps_3
Alright, alright, still you guys.
Though dressed in Western clothes, your heart remains free.
[Daily Report: Your good friend Simone’s coupon business has encountered a disaster out of the blue. The coupon printing factory was exposed for mass fraud, facing lawsuits from the consumer association and companies, and the market situation has led to a ban. She has decided to shut down the trading website and wash her hands of the business.]
[Daily Report: Your good friend, the great collector Madison’s arch-enemy, the tycoon Jehovah Priyan, will hold an underground bonfire slave auction at Clover Ranch at 9:30 pm in the suburbs. You might be able to help Madison obtain some dirt on him for retaliation.]
[Details: Special guests invited to the auction include Edwards Base Air Force Colonel Frank, Hollywood star Vin Diesel, East Coast rapper Farrell Williams, female singer Selena, Los Angeles Eastern region’s Judge Jo Kol, Black Forest’s philanthropist and investor Merlin, the leader of Florence’s 13 gangs, and a total of 26 others. The lots for auction are: a Victoria model, a Colombian top model, a prima ballerina from the Grand Opera House, and a former girl group member from South Korea.]
Allen Zhang read the report and fell into deep thought.
He felt that Madison would be very keen to get this piece of information about his arch-enemy!
He sent a message to Simone inquiring about her recent situation.
Allen Zhang: So, you’re not doing the coupon business anymore?
Simone: How did you know?
Allen Zhang: I saw news online about the coupon printing factory being exposed for mass fraud, facing lawsuits from the consumer association and companies. I figured your business must be difficult to continue.
Simone: I didn’t expect you’d take interest in such trifles, billionaire! That’s right, it’s been a source of headache for me, but that kind of business is hard to do in the first place, and it doesn’t really make a lot of money.
Allen Zhang: What do you plan to do next?
Simone: I still have a few hundred thousand dollars saved up. I’m planning on investing one hundred thousand to start a grocery store with little Lori. Your people might be able to help us too.
Allen Zhang: Is there any trick to it?
Simone: A while back when I was peddling discount goods in the community, I ran into an Asian grocery store owner with little Lori. He specialized in the Food Stamps business.
Simone then briefly explained the industry’s inner workings to Allen Zhang. It wasn’t exactly high-end knowledge; at least many people knew about it, but chose to do it or not.
Food Stamps are a welfare subsidy initiated by the state government, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The rightful source is novel·fire·net
Food Stamps are similar in concept to the shopping vouchers for the homeless, but they cannot be exchanged for cash, nor can they be used to purchase just any items. They are meant for low-income families to buy essential foods like grains and fish.
Many astute grocery store owners have found a business opportunity here, choosing to buy Food Stamps from low-income families. Many poor families themselves do not need that much food; they would rather go hungry than smoke less or forgo smoking, and they typically exchange their Food Stamps for cash at the store.
Grocery store owners also tacitly allow customers to use Food Stamps in exchange for cash or other groceries like cigarettes, buying Food Stamps at the rate of 50 cents on the dollar.
They accumulate a large amount of Food Stamps, then turn around to cash them out in full to the government for goods or cash, making a profit from the difference. The most valuable among these are seafood vouchers, beef vouchers, and protein vouchers, with a seafood voucher on the Black Market even fetching as much as 15 dollars.
Especially those Food Stamps with logos of chain restaurants for welfare, a family of four can use that voucher to reserve a free meal at a nearby mid-to-high-end chain restaurant. Many chain restaurants participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program also for tax write-offs.
Allen Zhang immediately understood the operation model. Isn’t it just speculating to make money from the government?
What the West Coast doesn’t lack is poor families. If scaled up, it could indeed be profitable from the government’s pocket, but individual businesses without connections are not advised to do it.
Of course, the General Sect Leader has the connections and the power to help Simone.
Allen Zhang: Rachel, the Golden Retriever with the short tail, owns a restaurant, she might also be able to help you cash in. Now, although many people on my team have jobs, they don’t have any assets registered under their names, and are considered low-income families. They can get Food Stamps through shelter channels. Later, they can also go through your grocery to buy needed low-end goods, and you can make money too.