I've talked about this with some liquor store owners in SF and also a couple that has a "cute things for your home" store. For small stores it's easier to deal

I've talked about this with some liquor store owners in SF and also a couple that has a "cute things for your home" store. For small stores it's easier to deal with this because they, let's say, try to proactively stop theft. Big chain stores just usually have some kind of dumb policy to not do anything even though they are legally allowed even in cities like San Francisco that are notoriously anti-big-bussiness in the street. The word spreads around. For example the spike in theft on Wallgrees in SF did start when they changed their policy about a year ago. Before they changed it I saw the store manager in the Wallgreens on 23rd and Mission literally kick the shit out of people that were trying to walk out with merchandise without paying.