I stopped going to Walmart for that reason.

I remember as a kid in Mexico, you had to go make a line at the store. When you finally got to the desk, you would ask for what you wanted to buy. Lol, needles to say that's exactly how it still works in small local stores. Its a little like buying cigarettes at the gas station, but for everything minus the ID.

That's not good for business, but hey, it's been decades of my life and they're still working like that. Maybe there's something to it? I hate it though. I would never shop there unless it was the last place on earth.

In the Bay Area, I saw stores with gates and turnstiles which are presumably intended to make running out of the store harder, especially for someone holding a lot of stuff. I wonder if they work any better.

One store I went to there even had a guy letting people in one by one after looking them over, like a bouncer.

This logic frustrates me:

these claims were unfounded, with a mere 23 shoplifting incidents occurring between 2018 and 2021, according to police records

That's less than one shoplifter a month, which is obviously not an accurate count.

The police barely even respond to shootings. Are they going to do anything if you call them and report someone stealing a box of shaving supplies? Why bother even trying to report that?

Walgreens is God awful, 25 min In line for a prescription yesterday and everything is locked up.

Putting the actual issue aside for a moment, the lock pictured is pretty stupid. It would be so easy to simply unscrew the screws.