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That sounds extremely unlikely to me - do you have any references? Looking through gNews for 'shoplifiting' I see things like [1] which average around $100 or less and those were arrests.

1: https://www.cleveland.com/community/2020/12/lorain-woman-wit...

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Here's one example of this kind of opportunistic shoplifting[1], though for online retail purposes, not open air markets. Those most certainly do exist in San Francisco, though. Wander (In better times, not so much with Covid) the Mission District, Outer Richmond, the Haight - Just off the beaten path will be street vendors. There will always be a "Discount homegoods" with an eclectic collection of drugs, toiletries, etc.

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/10/06/major-san-franc...

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/03/phillys-new-top-...

And since then, many other cities have followed suit.

Contrary to popular belief, almost no one is actually in jail for small time drug possession, so reducing “mass incarceration” means reducing or eliminating penalties for real crime.

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