One point is that grocers shouldn't have to fend for themselves against crime.
Supplying the public good of crime fighting is the main reason to form governments in the first place.
Supplying the public good of crime fighting is the main reason to form governments in the first place.
Or do you claim it's like this in every city?
Beyond that what do you propose? Put a police officer in each store 24x7? How much does that cost and is that cost socialized? What if a police office causes issues with customers? What does the reporting structure and chain of command look like? Who has ultimate authority in that situation, the police office or the store? How is the cost borne by the store? What is the share of private and public burden in officer benefits/pension?
None of those questions involve the internet and closed circuit monitoring is almost 50 years old. The status quo reflects a lot of thought and money invested into the problem.
A) Clerk warehouse model:
Stores can allow shoppers to browse through aisles of display items, sample items, boxes, or whatever else causes them to feel like a consumer, take tickets for what they want, then bring them to a counter.
After payment is received, someone else comes out from a secured, monitored area with all your items in a cart.
It wouldn't be too difficult to develop a system to allow people to visually browse for and select meat and produce items.
B) Strict club model:
Store is not open to the general public, but club members only.
You can't be club member if you are under 18 or don't have a provable source of income. If you violate the club's code of conduct, your access is revoked.
Entry is strictly controlled. You can't enter the facility without proof of membership. All purchases verified upon exit.
A) Cigarettes. Always behind a counter for age checks, but mostly because of loss prevention. Top shelf liquor, electronics, razors, and batteries often have similar constraints because they are compact and resalable. What is the loss of sales compared to theft loss and clerk staffing requirements (or implementation of the technology).
B) Club model suffers losses just the same. You can counterfeit a membership, and you might have issues validating on entry otherwise. Faster validation on entry might result in capex, and again you have a loss prevention/loss cost benefit decision to make.
Nobody is throwing money and low margin grocery chains. So cash flow positive operations are a big concern.
In the case from September, the suspect still hasn't been found, even with security footage and multiple witnesses and a description. Even at the vons, my regular shop on account of the stabbing at the ralphs, about once every other month the security guard has to bear hug and haul out a destitute person who decided to get belligerent with a cashier or customer. And this is a neighborhood that commands 1br rents north of 1.8k, but functions like Mos Eisley.
The solution is some sort of hired security, whether police or private. The ralphs situation could have been much worse without security guards.