So the guidance from management is to prioritize employee safety over some goods being stolen and not confront shoplifters.
The real issue is that prosecutors and police have been letting those who do get caught with no or minimal punishment in the past few years. And local laws have been reducing penalties for stealing after mid-2020.
So naturally shoplifters and thieves have gotten more brazen.
Presumably, it would be fairly easy to catch people stealing --- but they locked everything up and raised their prices instead.