First, the term is 'shrink', and it applies to known and unknown loss of expected profit within the store - a bucket that contains more than shoplifting, as you imply above. Things from overproducing prepared foods, ordering too many apples, cutting too many steaks, to damaged and outdated product from the supplier for which you receive anything less than full credit can all be examples of known loss - provided the establishment captures and records each instance. A known loss rate of ~70% across a grocery store is generally considered very good (and rare), and helps the company to put measures in place to reduce the loss.
By contrast, unknown loss is harder to combat. Failure to record items above, accounting mistakes, etc. (much more complex than one might think) and, yes, shoplifting fall into this category. The key here is that unknown loss cannot be quantified, or identified. For this reason many retail companies have transitioned their Loss Prevention resources from theft prevention to known loss management over the past 20 years. Things like plain-clothes LP officers were done away with, because corporations want to see numbers, and couldn't quantify the amount of dollars they were saving through things like word-of-mouth as potential shoplifters targeted other establishments with less theft-prevention measures. Additionally, records typically show company employees account for more theft loss than those from the street.
Now, there is still an outside theft issue we can discuss, but I wonder if you're aware of the rise in property theft that is commonly seen in the face of rising inflationary costs, as opposed to the "unprosecuted shoplifting" you mention? While we're at it, you've still yet to answer where all of this unprosecuted shoplifting you've repeatedly brought into discussions is occurring. And where are the direct links between "progressive verities of equity" and the return of food deserts?
I know above you grew sensitive to my labeling things as "talking points", but when you continue to spin them out with nothing substantive behind them, what are we to call them? "Talking out of one's hindquarters" comes to mind, but sounds less than civil. Either way you said above you would do better in this regard.. you aren't here.