Shoplifting was rife in the 90s and 2000s, and it was an acceptable business loss that most small business and retailers alike just shrugged off.

This new narrative that shoplifting is the reason that security measures and prices have to go up is just the latest strategy in corporations once more fobbing off blame on the end-consumer (a la "carbon footprint") for why they need to jack up prices again.

It's greed, plain and simple. We used to have high trust soceities and rampant shoplifting not too long ago, but we're being distracted once again