A traditional sight in Bronx supermarkets and bodegas were cans of Similac and other baby formula housed in anti-theft window displays as the scale of baby formula shoplifting became so vast that it not only became an interstate problem but pushed the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to force chain stores to install elaborate anti-theft devices in 2011.
However, those same shelves and displays in the Bronx and beyond the city’s borders are now empty, with myriad factors driving the nationwide baby formula shortage.
