Expensive cheeses are becoming a favourite target for thieves, and some grocers have been forced to put their more expensive products behind glass to combat a rising tide of light-fingered fans of high-end dairy products.
“It’s definitely a problem,” said Lindsay Diamond, who minds the shop at Duso’s Fine Foods on Granville Island. Staff have to keep a close eye on their products, which can cost more than $70 per kilo.
“They steal it and then they sell it; I guess there’s quite a profit in it,” she said. “We got a call a while ago telling us that someone was selling our cheese at the Ivanhoe Pub.”
Cheese is consistently in the top three items targeted by shoplifters, according to Vancouver police spokeswoman Const. Anne Longley. “Cheese, meat and razor blades.”
“We have recent reports, as well as reports going back years, about cheese being shoplifted,” she said.
Criminals may also be feeding an aftermarket hungry for expensive cheeses and meats, according to Richmond RCMP spokeswoman Jennifer Pound. “In some cases criminals are targeting the most expensive meat and cheese so it appears as though, in some cases, it goes beyond just being able to feed themselves.”
“The question we would like answered is who is purchasing this potentially stolen property,” said Pound in an e-mail interview.
Large blocks of cheese are easily resold to restaurants, sandwich shops and delis, and may also turn up in roadside stands, said security consultant Joe Wilson. “People are willing to do it because cheese is so expensive,” Wilson said.
Marketplace IGA on Robson Street keeps its high-end cheeses behind glass, beyond the reach of customers. Anthony Sullivan, son of store owner David Sullivan, refused to comment on why the cheeses were moved into glass cases, but floor staff confide to customers that cheese theft had become a major problem.
Whole Foods stores in Kitsilano and on Robson Street “definitely struggle” with cheese theft, according to Frank Schuck, Whole Foods specialty product coordinator. “They don’t have space for a lock box and even though theft is high, we want to have those cheeses available to our guests rather than having them have to ask for them.”
Choices Market CEO Mark Vickars hasn’t put his expensive cheeses behind glass, but his markets are designed so that staff have a line of sight to all the product displays. While Vickars has not noticed an uptick in cheese theft at his shops, Choices employs security guards to regularly sweep the stores. And he conceded that the company has helped police recover stolen meat products being hawked at downtown pubs. “We have always had that problem [shoplifting], but it’s not confined to cheese; they do it in meat and health care as well,” he said.
British grocery giant Tesco has resorted to placing security tags on cheese at some stores to stop them walking out the door. Tesco management pointed to a sudden spike in shoplifting. The tags, which set off a store alarm if they are not deactivated, are also used on hard-liquor bottles and compact discs.
Vickars said he has considered using security tags on his cheeses, “but we aren’t there yet.”
Often the threat of theft comes from within, according to Wilson of Sonitrol, a firm specializing in commercial security. “The largest problem is employee theft,” said Wilson. “They wrap the cheese in cellophane and throw it in an outside garbage bin and come back later to take it and resell it.”
rshore@vancouversun.com