[arkfreepdom]

I live in Walmart land. Majority of shoplifting was at night. That’s the reason.

[yukong]

I was going to say the same thing...here in my area, the vast majority of shoplifting occurred over night as there were just a couple of folks up front, no real control throughout the store and thus it made easy pickings for thieves. And for staff to steal. In fact, an high-up at my local store told me that even though the pandemic was somewhat involved in the decision to stop the 24 hour operation, it was really more about theft. With shoplifting felony limits now at $1,000 in Oklahoma, stores are getting slammed. And now that most all stores have an absolute prohibition on employees going after shoplifters, it is even worse. The odds of getting caught are low...especially since store employees are powerless to do anything but call police, and if you stay below $1,000, you just get pinched for a misdemeanor...then crime somewhat does pay. Just sad.

[Secret Agent Man]

I thought they just let people walk out with stuff now.

[backwoods-engineer]

BINGO! This is the core of the issue. Wal-Mart, like other grocers & retailers, have data on EVERYTHING about their operation, and it's being analyzed all the time. They KNOW there is more crime now than in 2019 (less enforcement), and they KNOW they have more losses after 11PM.

More than the crime issue, I believe this man-demic was a golden opportunity for them to "Reset" (Great Reset?) to an operating plan that is more profitable to them.