They’re not stealing it to feed their kids. It’s the powder of choice for diluting cocaine.
Are you serious? I assumed it was liquid formula. Dang, I’m an idjit…no street smarts whatsoever. I can see me kindly asking some drug fiend who stole a case of baby formula what else he needed.
“Uh…I could use a new scale and some Sudafed. The old formula, not the new stuff. Oh, and a case of baking soda.”
Duh.
Yep. My wife has been in the supermarket business for fifteen years and it’s been an ongoing problem. Texas’ WIC program makes it easy for folks to get all the milk and formula they need for their kids, so if someone is stealing powdered formula, it’s a pretty safe bet they’re involved in distributing drugs.
I remember going into a Walgreen’s one time and having to get someone to unlock a cabinet so I could get some Lactaid. I guess there must be a lot of criminals who are lactose-intolerant.
My husband and I both lost our jobs. I applied for foodstamps and was denied. When my daughter switched to formula, I always bought powdered, it would have never occurred to me to use the liquid. So I doubt if I was going to steal it, I’d steal the liquid, except maybe, they are smaller containers.
WTF would anyone cut cocaine with formula? It isn’t even close to white. Really? They use it to cut drugs? And geez, cost wise, wouldn’t corn starch be the most economical choice? Not to mention, ounce for ounce, formula seems to give cocaine a run for its money.
I am so out of the loop.
On Christmas morning 2008 I went to CVS to buy batteries for the kids’ new toys (I had asked my wife to buy AAA batteries but she bought AA, figuring they were nearly as good). To get a special price on the batteries I needed to buy something else, so I grabbed a bottle of CVS’s version of AstroGlide (which, BTW, is better and cheaper than real AstroGlide).
So there I am with 16 AAA batteries and a bottle of lube on Christmas morning. I’m pretty sure I heard the cashier start giggling as I walked out.
Today I happend to see the Asst Manager in the store and asked him about it. He said “If anything is behind a case, it’s because we have high shrinkage on it.” I looked around this Walgreens and very few things were behind cases, razor blades were, the baby formula was and the Prilosec type antacids were. I was a bit surprised condoms were out in the open.
So I guess it doesn’t explain WHY people steal “Head & Shoulders” only that they do.
The one thing you really don’t want is high shrinkage on condoms.
[Homer]
“Um, let me have one of those porno magazines… a large box of condoms… a bottle of Old Harper… a couple of those panty shields… andsomeillegalfireworks… and one of those disposable enemas. Ah, make it two.”
[/Homer]
Joe
In 1999 I was working as a stocker at a grocery store. I got the short end of the stick, so I was assigned the baby food aisle. Formula came in on the truck on Tuesday. Everyone and their second cousin with a WIC card came in that day. You could get one canister of Enfamil with a yellow top with the card once a week. Enfamil with a yellow top sold out within five minutes every week and there was no more until the truck came back the next Tuesday. It didn’t help that we only got about nine to fifteen canisters a week.
Shortly after that they started locking the formula behind the counter. It seems to last a lot longer that way.
I have locked up quite a few shoplifters in the last decade. All of them have either fallen into the category of high school/college kid doing it on a stupid whim or drug addict looking for money. I’m sure there are probably instances when someone was stealing only what their familiy needs. But I have never seen it. Liquid formula is also stolen a lot. Not to cut drugs but because it falls into the category of being relatively small and high priced. Also it is sold in neighborhood bodegas that are willing to bolster their inventory.
Thank god,I thought that I was the only one…
To lighten your hair from too much dark coloring mistake, you can also use dish soap.
Can someone explain the reasoning of the shelf thingies that aren’t locked, but require you to life up a plastic panel and reach behind a little plastic lip to pick up an item? They’re obviously not theft proofing – are they thought to make it slightly less convenient to just sweep a shelf full of stuff into a boost bag? Do they work? How is it decided which items go behind there (I’ve been seeing lots of this at my drugstore recently, on some pretty boring and it would seem low value stuff)?
Jaglavak, that is very interesting. Can you please link to an specific product milk of magnesia for sale somewhere? What exactly is the active ingredient in milk of magnesia? I haven’t got the faintest clue what that stuff is, or what it looks like, or where to get it.
It’s magnesium hydroxide, and used as a laxative. Amazon has it here.
Author Paula Begoun, who writes various beauty product review books (with breakdowns of what the chemicals are/do in various products, etc.) recommends milk of magnesia as an occasional face wash in people with very oily skin. I tend to get a lot of oil in my “T-zone” and finally gave in and used it at one point, and it did work in cutting down the oil! I suspect whatever it can do on the face, it does on the scalp too, whether it’s just soaking up excess oil or scrubbing your pores or whatever.
:smack: And if I’d read that Wiki link, I’d see that usage was listed right there on the page.
Huh. Another product that isn’t for sale OTC here in the Netherlands. Great tip tho. It’s the same with baking soda. No-one here gives that stuff the many uses you people give it, and it is only for sale in Chinese stores, not in mainstream supermarkets.
Such differences are one of the reasons I love this board.
Maastrict - How do you bake without baking soda?
StG
I was buying a nice pair of work gloves at my local hardware store, and I was shocked to see that one brand of gloves was locked up. I mean, they were nice ($25) gloves, but I was still surprised that they’d have so much theft on freakin work gloves. I can’t think of a drug connection, so I’m assuming that people are stealing them for resale somewhere else. Ebay, maybe?