Shoplifting isn't a new thing, and companies have had prosecution and enforcement policies for decades. Anti-theft devices have been around forever too. I was a

Shoplifting isn't a new thing, and companies have had prosecution and enforcement policies for decades. Anti-theft devices have been around forever too. I was a fairly prolific shoplifter in my teens, and different stores have been putting different protections in place on different products for as long as I can remember. Yes, devices have gotten cheaper. But I'd argue the "epidemic" is more than likely a moral panic, and we've seen plenty of moral panics before. It's easy to remember back to the 80s where the moral panic over kidnappings reached incredible levels and you'd see stores with intense child protection policies, signs in stores, etc. None of that expense was justified by the numbers, yet stores were doing it. Because moral panics eliminate rational behavior. "They're doing it so it MUST be justified" probably isn't a solid argument.