In my teens I went for a job at a supermarket (got as far as the training day but didn’t end up getting the job). I remember them telling us to ask to check all bags and they said if we were doing our job correctly, at the end of our shift there would be a small pile of items forming at the end of the register amongst the candy displays. Shoplifters would get cold feet when they saw the people ahead of them having their bags checked, and would dump the goods before their turn. Anyway, they told us the most commonly found items were usually razor blades - small, easy to hide and expensive. I have a feeling condoms were another high-theft item.
I can imagine vanilla essence being a high-theft item among young teens - it contains alcohol. I also remember a rumor from my school days, that if you dipped a cigarette in vanilla and let it dry and then smoked it, it would get you high.
Actually these are the only three ingredients in the average grocery store that you can’t make a terrorist device from, use to imbibe illicit drugs or distil an effective homemade contraceptive out of. So they lock them up in order to thrown everyone off the scent.
As a slight hijack off the ‘alcohol in vanilla’ bit, when I worked Armored, the inner city grocery store told us that people would steal peppermint extract and drink it for the alcohol. Can you imagine being so desperate for alcohol that you would actually down a small bottle of peppermint extract? I guess you’d be “minty fresh” for the rest of the day, but sheesh!
There was a recent thread on here that mentioned people buying Listerine by the case for the same reason. Oh, and Purell, which, surprisingly, uses ethyl rather then isopropal alcohol.
I was in my local Agway the other day. The “Frontline” was behind the counter with just a sign in the pet supply aisle that it is available.
Frontline is a flea and tick deterent for pets. The stuff goes for between $30 and $60 for a six month supply.
The only thing I can think of is that terrorists must steal the stuff to make bombs and blow up government buildings. Why else would Agway want to keep the stuff behind the counter where good, patriotic people can’t steal the stuff.
Well, at least it’s not being used as an accelerant for heroin or some such weirdness. If people are just shoplifting the stuff, it’s probably being resold on ebay.
