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The Baby-Formula Crime Ring (2018)
- jostmey 6y agoI remember baby formula from Amazon arriving with the tamper seal opened. I immediately realized what happened. Someone purchased baby formula, used it, filled it with powder, sold it at the Amazon market place, and then Amazon shipped it to me (Amazon thought the tampered product was indistinguishable from its factory purchased products). I stopped ordering anything food related from Amazon. Pay attention to the tamper seal. That's all I could do. I bought all my formula direct at the grocery store after my Amazon experience
- jrumbut 6y agoThat's terrifying! You would think such an issue would be worthy of a major investigation, what would happen if a baby lived on that powder for weeks?
- martamorena943 6y agoYeah, that's should be something along the lines of: * Fraud: Selling a product not as advertised * Tampering: Selling a product with the tamper seal broken * Intent of causing bodily harm to newborns Yeah that should give a nice little jail sentence lol. If this doesn't warrant an investigation then I don't know.
- astura 6y agoI mean, there has been investigations, many investigations, and they've found this sorta thing is Amazon's MO. Example: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/08/report-finds-more-than-4100-unsafe-or-recalled-listings-on-amazon/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/08/report-finds-mor... >Among the Journal's findings: 116 products falsely listed as FDA-approved, including toys, which the agency does not regulate; 80 listings for infant "sleeping wedges" the FDA says can cause suffocation and that Amazon had previously banned; 1,412 electronics listings falsely claiming to be UL-certified; 2,324 toys that failed to include federally mandated choking hazard warnings; and more. >The WSJ commissioned tests of 10 specific children's products it bought on Amazon, many carrying the enigmatic "Amazon's Choice" badge. Of those, four failed tests based on federal safety standards, including one that contained excessively high levels of lead. >A 23-year-old man in Missouri purchased a motorcycle helmet from Amazon that was at the time listed as certified as meeting US Department of Transportation safety standards. Later that year, however, he was killed in a crash while riding. A federal investigation later found that the helmet did not meet DOT standards and was recalled. The WSJ, however, found the product still for sale, with an active listing promising compliance, until the WSJ contacted Amazon to inquire about it. >The WSJ's investigation found 157 products for sale that Amazon has already banned from sale on its site. The motorcycle helmet was one of more than 2,300 product listings altered or pulled after the WSJ drew them to Amazon's attention. Yet, within two weeks, the WSJ found that at least 130 of these problem items reappeared, "some sold by the same vendors previously identified by the Journal under different listings."
- tehjoker 6y agoI guess Amazon wants to get every possible item into its marketplace so it can declare victory and corner the market. It's already a near monopolist so it can do this stuff. Terrifying what they'll do when they increase their market share further.
- klipt 6y agoI guess you don't get Bezos rich by caring about customer well-being.
- jrumbut 6y agoSorry for the late reply, should have been more specific. I mean a law enforcement investigation into tampered baby formula sales, targeting the actual sellers rather than only quantifying the problem.
- spoonjim 6y agoNo the lesson is don’t order food products from Amazon! Order them from Target which has a far more controlled supply chain.
- lotsofpulp 6y agoUnfortunately, Target has also introduced third party sellers on their website so it's no longer as easy to trust them as it once was. Costco or the brand's website itself is my most trusted source for now.
- bluGill 6y agoMy most trusted source is find the major players (make sure they are competing companies and not just brands of the same one), follow the "where to buy links", and find a small niche company that sells both brands. They tend to only sell one type of thing so they are experts and can give good reviews. They don't care which item I buy, just that I buy from them. They can thus tell me the real differences. I then buy from them as the prices are generally good and I get good service.
- koolba 6y agoMore generally don’t purchase anything that gets absorbed into your body from Amazon. That’s food, creams, gels, toothpaste...
- afandian 6y agoWhat country are you in? Is that a serious criminal offense? Did law enforcement get involved?
- BrissyCoder 6y agoWhat was the replacement powder exactly do you know? Sounds like something you should have involved police in.
- bagels 6y agoIs there anywhere online with a large selection (electronics or food) that doesn't allow third party selling and actually sells legitimate product?
- dec0dedab0de 6y agoIt's not the third party that makes it a problem. It's the comingling. So if you buy it from one company it could have actually came from another. So there is no way for the bad 3rd party to be held accountable. As far as I know Amazon is the only marketplace that does this.
- klipt 6y agoI trust Target and Walmart over Amazon for anything food related.
- slacktide 6y agoThis also sometimes happens with returns at retail stores. I bought a $20 gallon of Acetone at Home Depot, took it home, and all it contained was water.
- codr7 6y agoAlternatively, don't feed your baby processed crap food.
- willcipriano 6y agoLet me guess, zero children?
- staticautomatic 6y agoThis comment is wholly ignorant of the many good reasons one might have for feeding formula to a baby.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- whatshisface 6y agoThe same fraud could happen with other foods.
- beervirus 6y agoShaming women for not breastfeeding is really shitty.
- conductr 6y agoAnd really common. We've actually heard horror stories of the lactation nurses can be the worst. Personally, we're pretty open about the fact that my wife had a double mastectomy yet we still got "I would never" type of shade thrown our way for formula feeding. The struggle is real and it's not the right time to be shaming a new mother.
- jjeaff 6y agoIt's insane that anyone would try to shame a mother for things like this. As if their entire life at least for those first few months isn't already filled with self inflicted shame and fear of doing something wrong. To add to that, while I agree that mother's milk is best, the difference is vanishingly small in most studies. We are talking about a few percentage points in aggregate, just enough to be statistically significant. We had a good lactation consultant and I think she explained it well. All else being equal, breastfeeding is best. But if you have to choose between a mentally and physically well mother and breast feeding, I would choose a healthier mother, everytime.
- fredrikholm 6y agoGenuine question: Is living in America as horrible as it sounds for the average, non-rich citizen? Impression I get from the media: * Education sets you in semi-if-not-permanent debt. * Housing is impossibly expensive. * Single hospital visit can be thousand of dollars. * Critical medication is hundreds of dollars a month (or more). * Unpaid, (effectively) mandatory overtime. * Many people work several jobs (as adults). * No paid vacation. * No paid maternal leave. * No paid paternal leave. * Paternal leave is taboo/strange. * Maternal leave is weeks/month or two. From the outside, it sounds like your average American is living in 1930s Poland, not the land of the free.
- spoonjim 6y agoWell you definitely have the wrong idea. About 20% of Americans do live in extreme economic precarity. But things are not out of a horror movie. That’s in fact why there hasn’t been a violent revolution, things aren’t bad enough here (yet?).
- fredrikholm 6y ago> 20% of Americans do live in extreme economic precarity > That’s in fact why there hasn’t been a violent revolution You're being sarcastic, no? A fifth of the people are living in extreme economic precarity. Your Capital was stormed by terrorist from your own country. Widespread policy brutality lead to protests over the entire country, culminating in city blocks being burnt down in what, a dozen cities?
- phobosanomaly 6y agoAmericans are pissed about a lot of the things we see around us, yet we also have a political system that, were all of us involved, would likely provide the means to fix many of those things. If you ask an American about, say, the problem of homelessness they will tell you it is awful, and there are more people living in tents, and etc. etc. But, the overwhelming majority of people will not lift a finger to get involved in either nonprofit or public-sector solutions in any meaningful hands-on way. So, we're upset about everything and simultaneously unwilling to put in a collective effort to fix any of it (even though we know we could if we really tried - we were raised on the idea of American exceptionalism after-all). I think that produces a sort of cognitive dissonance throughout the population. We know these problems are tractable, we know we're capable of solving them, but we also know we're not going to do a damn thing about them. The origins of the cognitive dissonance can perhaps can be attributed to the strong mythologic narrative of individualism in the country running up against the erosion of community, the income gap, the increasing complexity of the problems we face, and the inadequacy of out K-12 education system to prepare students to function competitively in the 21st century.
- madcaptenor 6y agoBased on the date, it looks like I literally missed this article because I was standing in the aisle of a grocery store trying to decide which formula to buy for my three-day-old baby.
- subungual 6y agoHa-- having been in that situation this past October, that simple description is incredibly evocative for me. Even in that dazed, sleepless state, though, I remember a sudden upwelling of intense sadness when I realized for the first time how expensive such a basic necessity was... and how they felt the need to keep it all locked up. Real moment of clarity about the state of this country (US).
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- conductr 6y agoLol. Based on date, we were pregnant and deciding which formula to use since we knew ahead breastfeeding was not an option for us. The funny part is we never used any of it because the little shit would only eat the pre-made liquid form and we only bought powder types. I still don't get why but the exact same product he loved came in a powder form and it was really incompatible for him. The joke was "he has expensive tastes" Also, my advice to all new parents is don't stock up or plan too much on food related items/tools. Don't buy a dozen bottles until you know they like them. This applies into toddlerhood.
- drewzero1 6y agoThat's great advice! We got a bunch of a couple kinds of bottles, there ended up being a few that he liked and the rest he just refused.
- conductr 6y agoThat’s exactly what happened to us. It’s happened with sippy cups too and strawed cups. To a lesser extent but if they don’t like the shape or handles or whatever it’s effectively useless. It's funny how opinionated kids can be at such a young age!
- bluedino 6y agoMy son had a bad reaction to regular formula, so we're stuck with using Enfamil Nutramigen. It's about $44 a can at Target or Walmart, and he goes through just over a can a week. I've went on their website and mailed in the slip to get coupons, but they never send us any for this particular formula, just the other varieties. They are fairly valuable coupons, so we give them friends who can use them. We are fortunate enough to be able to afford it, but it'd be nice to get a discount on what's basically $200/month. One tip we've found is to ask the pediatrician's office for samples, they'll give us a couple small cans or bottles of ready-to-use formula when we ask.
- bombcar 6y agoSign up for Target Circle and use the Target card - 5% back by default and they OFTEN run a "buy two formula, get a $10 gift card" deals. Keep an eye for those.
- lekeve 6y agoSame situation with my young one. Nutramigen worked great but caused runny poops. We went with HiPP HA Combiotik which really improved our baby's skin. It's also a little cheaper than Nutramigen, especially if you buy in larger quantities (8-12 boxes at a time).
- dang 6y agoDiscussed at the time: The baby formula crime ring - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17009675 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17009675 - May 2018 (17 comments)
- mickeypi 6y agoAnother reason to breastfeed, if that's a viable option for the parents.
- analog31 6y agoSome years ago, I noticed at my supermarket, that the baby formula was kept under lock and key, next to the cigarettes. I asked myself: "Now who's going to steal baby formula, when anybody who can't afford it is probably on assistance." Then I read this article.
- das4119 6y agoSo the government does its thing via WIC and distorts the market. The price goes up as the price-sensitive portion of the market disappears. Why wouldn't crime take advantage of this? Alternative restated question: where are the competitors working to lower the price in a functioning economic dynamic? Enjoying the profits of a distorted market.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- hristov 6y agoIt is a bit disappointing, that in what we consider to be an advanced capitalist economy there are these pockets of exorbitantly high prices.