http://nypost.com/2025/10/29/us-news/walmart-nyc-area-grocery-stores-threatened-with-mass-looting-after-snap-benefits-expire-sources/
By Joe Marino, Steven Vago and Chris Nesi
New York Post
October 29, 2025
Walmart and grocery stores across the New York area are being threatened with mass looting after SNAP benefits expire on Saturday, law enforcement sources told The Post.
The threats began cropping up on social media this week after the US Department of Agriculture announced that November food stamp payments would not be made to some 42 million Americans due to the federal government shutdown — which at 29 days and counting is already the second-longest in US history.
The news has incensed many recipients of the 60-year-old Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, some of whom are threatening to take matters into their own hands with a lawless national protest, the source said.
As the benefits pause looms, postings on TikTok and Facebook have cropped up encouraging people to coordinate in a rash of mass thefts.
“At the end of the day they’re trying to see if we’re gonna stick together, and we are gonna stick together. F–king November third at 6:30 we’re going to Walmart. We’re going to f–king Walmart, and at 7:30 we’re going to walk out of Walmart with our f–king buggies,” TikTok user hersheyykissess1 said in a video post.
“The thing is, they can’t catch everybody. All you gotta do is run, Forrest, run, ok?”
The video drew hundreds of comments, many of which mocked the entitled attempt at inspiring vigilantism.
Similar threats also targeted local grocery chain Food Bazaar, which has 28 locations in the Big Apple.
The East New York store, which has had problems with rampant theft even before the social media campaign, employs two to three security guards per shift.
“This store is a problem. There’s someone who is always in trouble, someone takes food always,” one guard told The Post.
The guards said they were all aware of the Facebook posts calling on the store to be raided Nov. 3, but conceded there isn’t much they can do if the planned large-scale pillaging actually takes place.
“What if it’s 1,000 people against three security?” he asked.
“We’ll see what happens,” added another worker who didn’t seem overly concerned.
Cops are warning that despite the online threat naming Walmart specifically, other grocery and retail stores are being advised to “remain extra vigilant for theft” next week, according to sources.
Social media users have been publicly threatening to steal food for more than a week, but until now there has been nothing resembling a coordinated effort with a specific time and place.
“You know what? Since they wanna take food stamps away, I’m gonna go to f–king Walmart, grab anything I damn want, put that s–t right in the basket and walk right up out that b—h … I’m not paying for a damn thing,” one woman boasted.
The government shut down on Oct. 1 after Democratic leadership demanded an extension of enhanced Obamacare subsidies, a reversal of the GOP-backed Medicaid reforms, and other concessions totaling an estimated $1.5 trillion over the next decade.
The Senate has voted 13 times since the impasse began to pass a stopgap measure that would open the government back up through Nov. 21, with Democrats refusing to cross the aisle each time.
Republicans would only need five Senate defections to get to the 60 votes needed to break the filibuster.
| 
