Lingerie Store in Louisiana Accepts EBT Cards as Payment

A lingerie store in Louisiana applied for and was approved to accept EBT cards as a form of payment. The store, Kiss My Lingerie, is located in Gonzales, LA, and sells lingerie and sex toys. EBT cards, which in Louisiana are referred to as “Louisiana Purchase Cards”, carry both food and cash benefits.

To paraphrase a line from The Hangover, while it isn’t illegal for Kiss My Lingerie to accept EBT cards as payment for its line of corsets and bustiers, it’s certainly being frowned upon.

From WAFB News (emphasis added):

A woman who works near the store and asked not to be identified said in the last few weeks, she’s noticed more people going inside the adult shop. She added that’s when she saw the message on the front door of the store that the EBT card is listed as an acceptable form of payment.

“We were told anything could be purchased there, with the food stamp card,” she said. “No child I know eats edible underwear.”

[...]

Although this case skirts the line, state officials stated there’s no violation of the law with the store accepting the card for lingerie and other adult items. They added because the cash benefits are part of a federal program, Louisiana does not dictate how families spend the money of those cards, which could be less than $200 a month or up to $400 a month.

“It’s still the taxpayers dollars that are being used in a store like that and that really upsets me,” the unidentified woman said.

Under the SNAP (food stamp) program, any non-prepared item that is edible that does not contain alcohol or medicine is considered to be “food,” and can be purchased with SNAP funds at eligible retailers. This umbrella apparently includes edible underwear and candy shaped like pieces of the male anatomy.

I’d say “ridiculous,” but honestly, it’s hard to even faze me any more. How else are the poor going to purchase bustiers without taxpayer dollars?

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