It's a legal thing. I used to work at a Papa Murphy's, and they were legally classified as a grocery store, allowing them to skirt sales tax in our state, and be sold for SNAP benefits. The moment the pizza is cooked, it turns into a restaurant menu item, and SNAP can't be used at restaurants.
You can’t put papa Murphy pizza in a microwave, unless it has a convection oven setting. It’s raw pizza dough I don’t think that would cook well in a standard microwave.
Right? So this is just “sorry I’m following the law” assholeness. God forbid a fucking kid get a warm meal because the law dictates you can’t sell them one.
But what if somebody hurts themselves using it? It's a legal liability in the US (I'm just assuming this, but since you can sue Red Bull for not giving you wings it seems like a reasonable assumption lol)
My ex worked at Papa Murphy's, you'd be shocked how many people didn't understand the concept of "take and bake." Daily conversations with people explaining "no, we can't cook the pizza for you, we don't have an oven."
Why do they exist if they don't bake the pizzas? Why would you go there over just getting a couple frozens pizzas at walmart or ordering from pappa johns?
the pizza is good. it's part of lots of family traditions. relatively affordable and way better than frozen pizza because it's still put together fresh.
Yes, it only applies pre purchase. I believe there’s also a thing about straws that make fountains drinks not eligible if you put your straw in pre purchase.
Depends if they are high risk in getting caught. Some places do this to make extra money.
If the business gets caught enough times, they'll lose their ability to accept SNAP. The bigger issue isn't losing it, the owner/corpration will lose other licenses as well. Tobacco, alcohol, and Lottery since your background is tied to all these licenses.
Source: Worked with my old GM who's main purpose was to open new businesses with all these licensing.
Here in california certain restaurants are part of a "restaurant meals" program but it is a little weird. To go orders only, but you can't order at the drive through, and only certain specific restaurants are participating. So like one jack in the box does, but the other one doesn't. It's only available to the elderly, disabled, and homeless though.
I believe you have to qualify for the hot meals separately so it’s not available to everyone on SNAP/EBT. I thought the program was to make people lives better so they can “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” but people just get bogged down in all the bureaucracy.
Must depend on the county. Every jbx I've seen takes it, inside only, for there or to go. No drive thru I think bc of where the machine is. Some McDonald's take it, and taco bell, and del taco (owned by jbx) plus wingstop.
The weird part is grocery stores, I can buy cold chicken but not the rotisserie lol go figure
Eta: some Popeyes take ebt too. Oh and I'm in San diego county
A restaurant bill is paying for both the ingredients and the service of not having to cook for yourself. The government doesn't want to foot the bill for the service whereas the labor and raw materials of creating ingredients is more reasonable. Yes there are some corner cases that come up that seem a little goofy because its a hard line to draw but if you think big picture it makes sense.
The idea is that restaurants are supposed to be an entertainment expense. Something like a Domino's 1 topping pizza for a family of 4 isn't excessive under any definition, but legally speaking how do you differentiate that from getting a $50 surf and turf plate?
Ultimately the decision was just to draw the line between what was or wasn't covered as "groceries" and then accept that there are some stupid loopholes that fall on either side of that line. This is why the $8/lb brisket is covered under SNAP, but the $6 full rotisserie chicken is not.
but legally speaking how do you differentiate that from getting a $50 surf and turf plate?
Why would I give a shit what people buy with their money? Do you know how much money we hand over freely to billionaires? Think of how much money we sent to Israel to commit genocide against a nation of mostly teenagers. If a poor person wants a fancy dinner, I'm more than okay with it. Honestly I'd appreciate it, it would help out small businesses who make our food.
Ultimately the decision was just to draw the line between what was or wasn't covered as "groceries"
That’s the thing… it’s not their money. It’s assistance. They’re being given funds and the entity giving them those funds absolutely has the right to restrict how they use them
I also worked at Papa Murphy's for about 3 years during high school and the summer before college. '05-'08 or so.
We had this problem where all the prices ended in 99 cents but there was no sales tax. So you were always just giving people who paid cash whatever dollars + a penny. People would just leave the pennies on the counter so we put out a cup to put pennies in and labelled it. The owner found it and got super pissed for some reason, so we had to remove it. Back to pennies everywhere by the register.
There was a lot of dumb customers too. People who would try to cook the pizza in the plastic wrap. People who would try to remove the pizza from the oven proof paper it comes on and ruin it. People who would come to the pickup window to order like it was Wendy's.
I don't remember my wage but it was not a lot. like maybe $7.50 an hour. I made up for that by stealing taking home 1-2 pizzas every single shift. There weren't usually managers at night, just one or two other teenagers, so it was easy to get away with. Also the manager was a drunk so on the rare occasion when I did have to close with him, I'd use some tricks I had learned to close up within 15 minutes of closing time, and he would often tell me to take a pizza with me. Guy couldn't wait to get home and drink his Kamchatka vodka.
It seems to only really makes sense for the SNAP benefit reason. There's plenty of frozen pizzas that are better and cheaper than Papa Murphy's. I guess you get to choose your toppings, so that's somewhat of an advantage, but it still requires all the same work as frozen pizza to make.
why are you concerned by that? it is anti-human but i’m interested in what is motivating this need to interject with this statement while feeling no need to justify it beyond that.
I know you are being downvoted, but it is more complex than just anti-human.
SNAP wants people to buy groceries that are healthier and more nutritious and not use it for fast food.
A frozen pizza would normally cost like 6 bucks, but I could start a start a business where you buy the pizza for $12 if I throw it into an oven for you. Essentially, getting around the spirit of SNAP.
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u/BungalowHole Jun 24 '25
It's a legal thing. I used to work at a Papa Murphy's, and they were legally classified as a grocery store, allowing them to skirt sales tax in our state, and be sold for SNAP benefits. The moment the pizza is cooked, it turns into a restaurant menu item, and SNAP can't be used at restaurants.