Why are Americans in the dark about the benefits of food stamps to the society as a whole?
I just don't understand why there hasn't been a push by progressives to educate people about the positives food stamps provide to the people that receive them but even much more. What I am alluding to, is that, most of the business super markets, and Wal Mart are seeing these days are coming from people on food stamps. How do I know this? These businesses openly plan their best sales and deals the first two weeks of the month when food stamp funds are available. In addition, they stagger the majority of their hourly wage shifts front loading them the first two weeks of each month, and then cutting back the rest of the month and the cycle begins once more. From the very bottom (food stamp recipients, wage worker) to the very top (JP Morgan) food stamps has been, and will be an integral way of ensuring the bottom doesn't fall out. This is why corporations are not really receptive to cutting food stamps, because there is something for them to gain as well in all of this. Republicans wanting to cut food stamps are essentially against the entire chain of economic activity from the bottom all the way to the top. My question is what can we do to empower people to be better informed?
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most not familiar with people who needed or used food stamps, and some of the 'us vs. them' mind-set.
And they literally said the goal of their op-eds is to treat the viewers like they're millionaires or going to win the lottery / going to be rich and somehow it works and gets the party to vote against things that might actually help them. You ever notice how Mitt Romney - in his speeches - never discusses anything going on the present - he only speaks in future tense. Like "we're going to be better off than our parents" and "things are gonna be better" ad nauseum. 
Not just SNAP recipients. Plus, figure SNAP at 45 million clients and $65 billion annually, it's a big chunk, but just WalMart has $250 billion in US sales each year.
That said, you're of course correct that no corporation wants to see any part of its sales pool dry up -- and they will never support any real reduction in SNAP. They're competing for the business like they compete for any market segment -- big signs everywhere that say "WE ACCEPT FOOD STAMPS."
As to education, there's a lot we can tell people they'd probably get wrong if they guessed. Half of recipients are children, for one. Off the top of my head, average individual benefit is something like $120/month, so no one's "getting fat off the system." Biggest racial demographic is white. Almost half of SNAP recipients are also working. And there's something absurdly low like a 1% fraud rate across the system.
It's incredibly important. And no one would dare attack it during a recession; oddly, one of the best signs of recovery is that anyone is even considering speaking out against it in public. 
