diff --git a/bin/steps/pylibmc b/bin/steps/pylibmc
index 7ca9b9c222e5abfafebdf8a51dcbb9eeb8f04239..960859b193c26ad866e9b7c681fc761d33634cf7 100644
--- a/bin/steps/pylibmc
+++ b/bin/steps/pylibmc
@@ -13,8 +13,8 @@
 VENDORED_MEMCACHED="http://cl.ly/0a191R3K160t1w1P0N25/vendor-libmemcached.tar.gz"
 
 # If pylibmc exists within requirements, use vendored libmemcached.
-if (grep -Fiq "pylibmc" requirements.txt)
-then
+if [ requirements.txt ]; then
+  if (grep -Fiq "pylibmc" requirements.txt) then
     echo "-----> Noticed pylibmc. Bootstrapping libmemcached."
     cd .heroku
 
@@ -30,4 +30,7 @@ then
 
     export LIBMEMCACHED=$(pwd)/vendor
     cd ..
+  fi
 fi
+
+