Just yesterday as I was walking into my grocery store a guy walked out shirt stuffed with food before staff could even react.
In talking to one of the employees at checkout that witnessed the theft, she said they are instructed NOT to attempt to intervene or detain a shoplifter.
A poor policy IMO.
In contrast, there’s a Khol’s department store that shares the same parking lot as the grocery store.
Without fail, for the last 5 years in a row I’ve seen a police car in front of the store with someone the back, that more than likely is a shoplifter that will be prosecuted.
Prosecution is a very effective deterant IMO.
I taught economics at a well-known university in Omaha, NB. I did a study of the price of a “basket of goods” at a chain with both downtown and suburban stores. The downtown store prices were 17% higher. I followed up with a survey with store managers to explain the difference: theft. And this was in the early 1970’s. I wonder what it’s like now.
Poor policy indeed.
And it’s folks like you and I who are paying for their goods in higher grocery prices.
And we don’t even get credit for making “reparations”!