The high price of formula and the ravenous market for it have attracted and enriched people from junkies and unethical grocers to young mothers on government assistance, police say. The illicit market also threatens the safety and nutrition of infants. Some retailers, like the Elmhurst Dominick's, have responded by removing powdered formula from open shelves. Most recipients use WIC coupons to buy food for themselves and their children. But others barter or sell the formula and other items they buy through WIC, or simply sell the coupons to storekeepers for cash.
People have a big problem with infant formula just leaving their shelves.
Police say shoplifters working alone or in small groups have filled grocery carts with cans of the powder and wheeled them to idling getaway cars. At Dominick's, you steal it one day and they restock the shelves the next day, and you just clear it out again. They stole only powdered formula because the liquid doesn't sell well on the street, he said. The grocers had no illusions about the source of the formula, he said. Everything in these stores is from other stores, and anything we bring in they'll buy, razors, diapers, aspirin.