You need to understand profit margins. Lets assume a 5% profit margin after taxes, on a $10 item. So you make $.50. You have to sell 20 just to cover the cost of that single stolen item. If 2 get stolen, need to sell 40 to cover the theft.
The cost of 'shrinkage' is huge, and all stores should have intensive video surveliance and armed guards. But this is expensive, and why they choose to leave.
We agree. My opening statement was just a way to stating the view of others (not my own).
The individual shoplifter may not understand that they are stealing not just the merchant but from everyone that shops at that store. Nothing is free, at some point someone has to pay for it.
The solution is obviously for the government to reimburse grocery stores and drugstores in high-crime neighborhoods for their losses from shoplifting, to get them to stay in those neighborhoods. I shouldn’t give the Democrats any ideas, but for all we know, it’s already hidden in the $1.2 trillion “infrastructure” bill that Biden just signed.