(I haven't read to the bottom of the thread yet, so apologies if someone already made this point)
When I was a kid, one of the refrains of the corporations was that their ability to conduct business was under assault from frivolous lawsuits. The narrative was everywhere. The "hot coffee" victim was a national punchline.
Every late night comedy show monologue for half a decade, "Look at this stupid reckless person who did something stupid and was stupid and is now trying to get money. Outrageous!"
Except that when you look at the facts of that case decades later, you have to admit that the company (McDonald's) was doing something reckless -- handing people boiling hot coffee/water in a little paper cup with a marginally secured lid -- and numerous people had already been injured, and the company knew that, but the company kept doing it despite their awareness of those earlier cases.
Anyway, this whole "PEOPLE ARE STEALING EVERYTHING FROM US!" from the retailers... that feels like an eerily similar corporations-as-victims claim, and I'm going to apply a small bit of skepticism when they present their alleged data.
I think this latest round of corporate propaganda is even more powerful because we've got actual videos of actual criminals doing brazen smash-and-grabs*, and this lines up perfectly with other ecosystems of thinly-veiled racism and "lawless cities!" propaganda.
*since nuance is dead, let me say that for sure that those property crimes very much need to be punished