Posted on 11/04/2002 11:06:08 AM PST by Shermy
Several grocery stores have taken vanilla extract off the shelves to keep it from thieves who may crave it for the high alcohol content.
"We kept finding bottles and boxes in the parking lot," said Bill Jones, manager of Boyer's Food Market in Berwick.
Employees also found empty vanilla boxes inside the store, he said.
At first, he thought the tiny bottles had at least been purchased before winding up on the asphalt, he said.
But then one day a customer told him she couldn't find any vanilla.
"That was strange," he said. "It had just come in."
The customer told him Weis Markets was keeping the vanilla at the customer service counter. That's when he realized he was the victim of shoplifters.
For several weeks, customers at Weis Markets and Boyer's Food Market in Berwick have had to ask for the extract at the customer service desks. Giant Foods stores customers had to do the same thing in Berwick and Bloomsburg until recently, when store officials returned the extract to the shelves.
Elizabeth Peroni, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association, said she had never heard of such thievery.
"I'd heard of people stealing baby formula to get money for drugs," she said. "But this is a new one."
Vanilla is relatively expensive, so its loss hurts store owners. A 2-ounce bottle costs about $3.35 at Boyer's. A larger bottle costs about $6.
Jones said he suspects the vanilla is being stolen for its alcohol content.
Carrying a kick
By law, pure vanilla extract must be at least 35 percent ethyl alcohol, according to Edgar A. Weber and Co., which makes vanilla for the food industry.
That means it is about 70-proof, or somewhere between the potency of schnapps and vodka.
The alcohol leaches the vanilla flavor from the vanilla beans, then evaporates during cooking, leaving the flavor behind, said Patricia Rain, owner of The Vanilla.COMpany in Santa Cruz, Calif.
Rain, who calls herself The Vanilla Queen, said that during prohibition, lots of people drank vanilla.
"It was a great way for women to drink without being caught," she said.
During World War II, people shipped vanilla to soldiers to give them a quick nip, she said.
"I've never heard about kids stealing it for that before," she said. "But it doesn't surprise me."
Jones said it isn't only children and teenagers stealing vanilla.
Before he moved the vanilla to a safer location, he collared a woman who looked about 40 years old who tried to shoplift three bottles of it.
Branding beans
Store owners aren't the only people who have to fight off vanilla thieves.
Rain said vanilla growers in Madagascar began branding their vanilla beans before they ripened to protect them. That way, they can recognize the fruits of their labor even after the beans dry.
Rain said vanilla beans tempt thieves because they are so labor-intensive. It takes 18 months to three years for a new vanilla planting to form orchids, she said. Those orchids bloom and die in just a few hours. Before they wilt, they must be pollinated by hand. Once the seed pods form, they must stay on the vine for nine months before they can be harvested. Then they are dried and cured in a process that takes another several months.
Giant spokesman Dennis Hopkins said that at Giant, workers plan to use old-fashioned eyes and ears to prevent further thefts.
"We're going to monitor that section and apprehend anyone who steals this product," he said.
Reporter Susan Schwartz covers the Berwick area. Call her at 752-3646 or e-mail her at SusanSc@ptd.net.
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