I have never worked for them, but know someone who has. I believe that the policy is to try to get them to stop and call the police with a description if they don't.
I did walk in to a Meijer store a few months back and see a couple of black young ladies laughing as the older white lady Meijer greeter was telling them to come back.
Inside the store another Meijer employee (another older white lady) was calling the police.
I just had to stop and hang around and watch (and be a witness in case something happened to the lady who went outside the store).
I was surprised to see a police cruiser arrive before the two young ladies made it all the way to their car...
So some stories have happy endings.
If you are angry that the company policy means thieves who steal items can get away with it because it's more trouble to chase them down and catch them and prosecute them, well, I feel the same way. But that's the way it is.
Look at it this way - someone who steals for a living or just because they are mean probably lives a pretty crappy life. I can only imagine such people either are known by everyone around them as being dishonest and therefore not to be trusted and/or they hang around with people like themselves and have to constantly watch their back themselves.
And since it's so easy to get away with taking things that don't belong to them, they are going to keep doing it until they get theirs one day.
That they can come into your neighborhood and steal from your local store and in so doing sort of trash your neighborhood does bother me.
Even though I sometimes have issues with the police (such as drug raids where they hit the wrong address and shoot the family pets and terrorize the homeowners), I will say I was pretty happy to see the police cruiser arrive in time to intercept the two young ladies in the Meijer parking lot that day.