What are things most people wouldn't think to steal but could be very valuable on a black market?

How about doing this the other way around. Look for some innocuous or unusual thing in an upmarket store.

Then figure out a reason why it could be valuable to someone.

 

I don't know much about soda jerking. Just wondering: would it be hard to train someone to do this? Not only do they have to know how to make the drinks, they also have to look presentable in a bow tie, have good people skills, and also entertain the guests. (From the wikipedia article).

It sounds like a bartender's job, but (maybe) serving only non-alcoholic drinks? I'm just guessing here, because the soda jerk's job initially started in the 1920s, during Prohibition. Please, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Meat when the world turns vegan

 

Meat when IF the world turns vegan. FTFY. *shrug* Honestly, I'm not holding my breath.

 

*laughing* I'm just saying. I am surrounded by hippy vegans where we live.

BUT if meat did become in short supply become in short supply I bet some people would kill for a decent steak

 

To take the idea of meat a step further - I can see a black market for human meat

 

Sigh. The only thing more tiring than rampaging vegans (of the kind who tell you in excruciating detail how much the cow suffered for your burger ... go away and let me enjoy my meal in peace, please) is the All-Natural mob. They're the ones who refuse to use anything man-made, "because it's got chemicals in it!!!" Yep, the kind who only use stuff that came from nature. Natural things! Nature is good! Nature can be trusted! Nature will never betray you!

So all I can say to that is: nature also contains deadly nightshade, poisonous mushrooms, arsenic, venomous reptiles, spiders, and scorpions ... the humble Venus flytrap ... bacteria, viruses, mold, mildew, maggots, fungus, weeds, E. Coli, salmonella, the crabs. (Ugh). And I haven't even started on deadly natural things that are bigger than humans.

As Lord Vetinari, in Sir Terry Pratchett's "The Fifth Elephant", remarks to Sgt. Colon (after Colon insists that he only uses "natural products" and doesn't care for anything "unnatural"): "You mean, you eat your meat raw and sleep in a tree?"

You mean, like what happens in Soylent Green?

SPOILER ALERT:

Spoiler

It's made of people!

 

Steal people's hair by drugging them and then cutting their hair off when they're asleep. Or sneak and search in a beauty salon for hair that has been thrown away. The hair would be used to make wigs and then sold on the black market.

 

Several years back there was a series of large scale food heists. A lorry full of Nutella here, an lorry full of energy drinks there, a whole load of maple syrup in Canada, etc. I imagine that a certain level of organisation would be needed to shift that much product.

 

I've always wondered that those people think food is made from.

 

This actually used to happen in the 17th and 18th centuries (minus the drugging/sleeping part). People cut their own hair off and sold it to wig-makers.

...See my comment above about "Soylent Green"...