Is the 'rise of retail theft' problem in America overblown?

You mean retail wage theft?

- What's the source on this? Want to explore it and share with a couple people.

Greed causes an over abundance of theft. If there is excessive theft, it's because of excessive greed.

When people are struggling and banks are telling retailers there is excessive consumer surplus, and retailers raise prices excessively (greed), theft will inevitably increase.

You had me in the first half, ngl..

Is nearly everything in the 24 hour news cycle overblown?

Everything but the climate catastrophe were facing ...

If there is a rise in theft it absolutely isn't having an impact on the record breaking profits being reported. Fuck em.

Their "inflation" rate is faster than the theft rise rate.
- The rich are the thieves. <-Period
  
  You can see the blood everywhere. It's even worse because they produce absolutely nothing.

Quick reminder: If you see someone shoplifting, no you didn't.

If I see someone shoplifting necessities, no I didn't. If I see someone shoplifting stupid luxury items, maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Depends on the situation. If it's a dumbass white kid who thinks they're being funny, I sure as fuck did.
- White people can be poor, or motivated by any other force motivating any other ethnicity thief.
- And then low cost grocery stores close and neighbors starve. How about you help them pay for it since you are there? Is a little personal ownership over the things you see too much for you?
What does this even mean?
- A reminder not to rat on people failing to make ends meet, when the only damage they cause is a slightly lower profit for a corporation whose CEO lives the private jet lifestyle.
And if you see someone shoplift food/formula then no, the absolute fuck you didn't.
This only applies to food and basic necessities
Yeah nah fuck those guys. More shrink means my hours get cut.
- "Shrink" is just another way to spell "your boss is part of the system that bleeds you dry".
- Shrinkage is already taken into account as a business expense.

Schroedinger's retail theft. The answer is both that it's up and that it's overblown.

If you overvalue possessions, People begin to steal.

Tao Te Ching, ch3

this has been known for quite a while

We wouldn't have retail theft if the 1% paid their taxes and shared the wealth they stole from everyone else.

Remember; if you see someone shoplifting, no you didn't.

And a mob? They're unsafe.
Remember, when stores close in high crime areas and neighborhoods decline, it's this person's fault.

Shouldn’t the free market compensate by hiring more security guards and loss prevention officers?

Nah, margins are already thin on retail stores. If you cant profit or even break even, whats the point?
- It’s simply a cost of doing business.
  
  If that business owner can’t figure out how to run their company someone else will.

It’s just that the supply chain excuse for jacking up prices is going away, so they need another BS excuse.

Yes

In my local community I have noticed a strong uptick, talking to store staff. But with wage insecurity and high food prices, “steal or watch your kid starve” isn’t really a decision. And yes, higher ticket items are being stolen, which some people are pointing at like there’s a difference: if the punishment is the same, why not steal the prime rib?

Yes.

There have been lots of stores that claim to close locations due to looting when it’s the not the case. There is a lot of opportunistic bs happening with stores these days from price gouging to straight up shutting down certain areas for things like unionizing