At the supermarket today, I noticed that in the locked cigarette case there also resided bottles of vanilla extract and containers of a copper cleaning product. Now I can understand the vanilla, since it’s easily stolen and contains alcohol (but why isn’t the mouthwash in there also?), but what’s with the copper cleaner?
Are they copper scrubbing pads, or a solution of some kind? Copper scrubbing pads are reportedly used by crack addicts to prop up the rock of crack.
The copper ChoreBoy stuff is used in crack/meth/whatever pipes. You jam a little piece of it into a glass pipe (a stem) so it doesn’t pull through when you puff.
The vanilla? Real vanilla is expensive, and contains alcohol, and that’s all I have.
In one of my usually-frequented grocery stores, the razors and razor blades have moved to directly under the customer service counter.
Huh, thanks. At Walgreens all management ever told us, for the reason why we were standing there sticker-and-taping the ChoreBoys was, “Crack addicts use them to smoke rock. And they steal 'em.”
Vanilla (real Vanilla, Madagasgar Bourbon Vanilla) is expensive and small. At my store we stop carrying vanilla beans becuae they kept getting stolen (and saffron for that matter).
Dude, don’t you know what kind of neferious improvised terroristic devices one can construct from cigarettes, vanilla extract, and copper scouring pads? Rather than provide the details at risk of moderator response, I’ll just let you do the research on that. (Look in the Nihilist’s Opuscule for details.)
Stranger (who is hoping to start a new bullshit urban legand about high explosives made from the above products)
Sorry, you need at least three (3) poorly made geocities pages and one(1) blog to do that.
They’ve even locked up the imitation vanilla extract. I think I read that there is a problem with local drunks stealing it. Interesting information on the copper cleaner: I was completely unaware of that aspect of things.
When you mentioned the copper pads, I kinda figured people weren’t stealing the vanilla becuase of the price, but I thought I’d mention it anyways.
Or just one “60 Minutes” or “Dateline NBC” segment.
Stranger
Hmmm. Well, you *can * make steel wool burn by putting a 9-volt battery to it. (When I was a boy scout, we weren’t much into the ‘rubbing two sticks together’ style of doing things.)
That’s not the way I hear it.
I hate that the stores have resorted to putting my precious Prilosec in those glass cases by the pharmacy, too.
And boy, the heat we generated!
What on earth for? I’m getting a queasy feeling that there are volumes of information about illicit use of OTC drugs and products that I’m completely ignorant of.
It could be an urban legend but I’ve heard razor blades, Gillette Mach 3 in particular are the most shoplifted items. My local stores just have a card, you have to bring the card up to the counter to get this particular brand of razor blade.
I think it’s more a case of small and expensive items being attractive targets for shoplifters.
Shoplifters.
Easily concealed, high-value items like razor blades are often stolen and sold to bodegas and corner grocery stores below cost.