year. store owners say they can t keep up and pretty soon neither can consumers. live in los angeles with more, hi, kelly. hi, dana. and that s right, it s something that we re seeing play out here. i m in melrose village today, normally a very popular retail shop. but the cycle that we ve been talking about has started to take over and businesses on this street see consistent retail theft. and that s what we re seeing nationally as well. you mentioned it, $100 billion lost in 2022. that has retailers shutting down or leaving cities like san francisco, national brands and small brands alike. it could get worse here in california, though. retailers are up against a tough policy. it s only a misdemeanor to steal anything under $950. now the statement has passed a new law that would prohibit retail staff even if they are trained to stop retail thieves. supporters say it will protect employees but others say it s anti-business. this is the blood, sweat and tears going into these stores
only two aisles of merchandise that isn t locked behind behi antitheft devices, which is nuts. opening a new store in chicago in 2020 one , walgreens executives lamented the impactir of shoplifting on their bottom line, shutting multiple location bot measd investing heavily in security measures. but then they recanted, saying the theft problem was overstated. macfo james kiho even told investors, hey, maybe we cried too. olmuch about the whole shoplifting thing. well, you could have fooled the customers in chicago. the new storige is designedned h more like a prison than a retail shop, although walgreens claims this is anis am improvement by letting employeeettings shop for you , h means any item deemed not essential by management must be ordered at a kiosnt musk unld by a clerk and picked up at the counter. the two aisles co of productshe actually open to the public included a limited selection ofa