According to many different news sources, Serbians are stocking up on garlic to ward off the threat of vampires. [see, e.g., this or this, h/t MA].
Get your garlic, crosses and stakes ready: a bloodsucking vampire is on the loose.
Or so say villagers in the tiny western Serbian hamlet of Zarozje, nestled between lush green mountain slopes and spooky thick forests. They say that rumors that a legendary vampire ghost has awakened are spreading fear -- and a potential tourist opportunity -- through the remote village.
A local council warned villagers to put garlic in their pockets and placing wooden crosses in their rooms to ward off vampires, although it appeared designed more to attract visitors to the impoverished region bordering Bosnia.
Is it okay to use garlic from one's inventory and then put it back after the threat passes? I mean, can you take some out of the pantry, carry it around in your pockets for a few weeks, and then put it back into the pantry? If so, this vampire scare won't do much to increase the overall demand for garlic, other than from tourists possibly. But even in the case of tourists, I can imagine budding entrepreneurs either buying the garlic from them at cut prices as the tourists leave, or possibly even setting up "donation" bins for tourists to leave their garlic in for those who might be less fortunate and hence more vulnerable.
Sounds like a good paper topic for someone. I'd need a SSHRC travel grant to go collect the data, though.
If somehow a shortage emerges that isn't cleared with the price system, people can perhaps order garlic from Amazon!
