diff --git a/lib/Vend/Table/Common.pm b/lib/Vend/Table/Common.pm
index ee49e6a..b5375e8 100644
--- a/lib/Vend/Table/Common.pm
+++ b/lib/Vend/Table/Common.pm
@@ -58,6 +58,12 @@ use vars qw($FILENAME
 	$EACH,
 	) = (0 .. 7);
 
+unless( $ENV{MINIVEND_DISABLE_UTF8} ) {
+		require Encode;
+		import Encode qw( encode_utf8 );
+	}
+
+
 # See if we can do Storable
 BEGIN {
 	eval {
@@ -165,7 +171,8 @@ sub unlock_table {
 sub stuff {
     my ($val) = @_;
     $val =~ s,([\t\%]),$Hex_string[ord($1)],eg;
-    return $val;
+    my $retval = encode_utf8($val) if $::Variable->{MV_UTF8};
+    return $retval;
 }
 
 sub unstuff {