$5,000 worth of baby formula stolen in West Sacramento. But that’s not the real crime | Opinion
Who steals baby formula?
A lot of people, apparently; including two alleged thieves that West Sacramento police say stole $5,000 worth of formula from local Target locations a few days ago. Baby formula is a commonly stolen retail item because of its shelf life and essential value to many people. There’s even a black market for it — but the buyers aren’t who you’d guess.
During the baby formula shortage in 2022, caused in part by bacterial contamination at one of the country’s main two formula suppliers and the subsequent recall, The Atlantic reported that rich parents tapped into a black market for European-produced baby formula, which is illegal to import.
Parents on WIC benefits — the federal program also known as Women, Infants and Children that provides food, nutrition education and referrals to services for poor families — reported traveling to multiple retail locations every week to find enough formula for their children to work around purchasing limits imposed by stores.
But perhaps more importantly, a society that is reduced to regularly stealing baby formula is a society that can’t afford to feed its children. And a society that can’t afford to feed its children should have much bigger priorities than punishing thieves who steal to feed a family.
Baby formula inflation
That the price of baby formula has increased dramatically over the last several years is surely an integral part of this story.
Baby food and formula prices rose 8.7% from Jan. 2023 to Jan. 2024 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index, and the cost of raising a child born in 2023 is approximately 30% more than a child born in 2011.
Baby formula is a fundamental item for American families, and more than half of babies over the age of three months are likely to have been fed formula either solely, or as a supplement to breast milk. It often constitutes milk whey and casein for protein, vegetable oils, lactose, vitamins and minerals. It’s so precious that stores lock it up behind screens now, along with toothpaste, deodorant and other, everyday health and wellness necessities.
Studies show that infants in low-income families, infants of color and infants living in rural communities are also more likely to be fed formula, according to an analysis of the 2019 American Community Survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
$5K is not that much
A 27.4-ounce container of “Enfamil NeuroPro Gentlease Powder Infant Formula” sold at Target online goes for $51.99. To steal $5,000 worth of baby formula, at nearly $52 per container, the alleged thieves presumably took approximately 96 containers. That’s a total of more than 2,630 ounces of formula.
Infants need anywhere from two to eight ounces of formula per feeding depending on their age, and can use approximately 2-3 cans of formula per week. A baby that consumes an average of two cans of formula per week could conceivably go through $5,000 worth of Enfamil in about a year. And a family with more than one infant could go through that same amount in six months or less.
Breaking it down that way, stealing $5,000 in baby formula seems a little less ludicrous, doesn’t it?
It seems feasible that a smash-and-grab of $5,000 worth of baby formula could be for just one family, or more likely an extended family, with multiple babies in need. We don’t know in this case, but it’s not a giant stretch of the imagination.
A little critical thinking
Punishments for robbery range from a fine to several years in prison. But you’re a very lucky and privileged person if you’ve never had to steal food to eat, and even luckier if you’ve always been able to provide food for your children.
How can our society so despise and punish modern-day thieves that steal baby formula — or a drink, or a loaf of bread — from multi-billion-dollar corporations, while venerating folk heroes like Robin Hood, William Tell or Zorro through the generations?
Why do we tell our children that robbing from the rich to give to the poor is commendable, but when it occurs in our own community, we only have disdain for the perpetrators?
California lawmakers and the corporate retailers who donate to their campaigns would have you believe that shoplifting impedes their ability to turn a profit, but the best research we have (because they don’t like to share numbers) shows that organized theft costs retailers around 7 cents per $100 in revenue. With billions in revenue, organized retail crime is actually a very minor issue for most retailers.
But lawmakers and big businesses rely on our disgust at the idea that someone would steal anything at all, and keep us focused on policing each other rather than questioning why the price of baby formula has become so untenable for families.
The regular, repeated theft of baby formula is a canary in the coal mine for our community and for America.
Editor’s note: In an earlier version of this column, the calculations on how much formula a baby needs were incorrect. The numbers have been adjusted in the column.
This story was originally published January 28, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
