Ultimately, the way it will be solved will be the ghetto way. Stores will become armored dispensaries. People will only be let in in small numbers, while the staff will be protected with bullet-proof glass. The doors will lock in the few customers allowed in at any one time. Cameras will be everywhere.
Costs will go up; shopping will be slow and involve long lines for access.
At that point, it will be easier to rob the customers who have gone into the stores than to rob the stores themselves. Other measures will be taken.
Everything will become more expensive.
the stores should have turnstyles....the stores need cameras that somehow alarm when a large group approaches and then automatically the door locks.....maybe the stores should just close.....then Moosehell will have another cause to dress up for .....
Take your excellent analysis a couple steps further:
* Businesses will leave the areas where loss rates are too high
* When most retail businesses have left, the poor won’t have anyplace to shop
* The feds will declare another “food and sundry desert”
* Feds will accuse companies of redlining and will prosecute many of them
* Execs will be jailed
* Government subsidies will flow to make sure the inhabitants have continued access to the necessary beverages and smokes
10 years ago we were in a big city in the Russian Far East
When we needed some “stuff”, our hosts were very proud to take us to a small supermarket that had well-stocked shelves- the kind of place most Russians couldn’t dream of entering
There were heavily armed guards at the door - I never forgot that
Who would have thought that we would devolve to being “them” in such a short time ... :-(