Street Barter

I think we’ve talked about this before, but washing detergent is being used as a street currency.

“Tide bottles,” Ben Paynter writes in this New York piece, “have become ad hoc street currency, with a 150-ounce bottle going for either $5 cash or $10 worth of weed or crack cocaine.” It’s a huge problem for stores. In fact, one Safeway in Maryland was losing $10,000 to $15,000 worth of Tide merchandise a month, and it seems the detergent spree has spread from Maryland to the rest of the United States.

The reason? Turns out Tide is really easy to steal, and it re-sells at a premium, so street entrepreneurs, who are always on the lookout for low risk/high reward steals, have taken to Tide. Now, that’s what I call brand loyalty.

Everybody needs to wash their clothes, so detergents become a universal barter. Also I wonder for all the bottles stolen, how many are bought using public assistance monies, for the express purpose of buying drugs.

h/t Mrs. Weer’d

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2 Responses to Street Barter

  1. Bob S. says:

    But what about the safe storage laws, the background checks, the law enforcement approval for this product?

    People have died overdosing on drugs and it is the ‘easy availability’ of Tide that contributes to the problem. Even CHILDREN have died after selling Tide for Drugs or having parents neglect them to do drugs; WE MUST ACT now, right?

    Applying the ‘gun control mentality’ to this issue shows how ridiculous the gun control mentality truly is.

  2. David W. says:

    What the deuce…..

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