Excessive shoplifting is how you end up with food deserts tho.
That's not at all why food deserts exist in the US. Food deserts are a multi-part issue, and the two largest issues are the closure of small independent stores and the increased popularity of very large physical stores. Independent grocers were woven throughout urban and rural communities alike for much of American history, and were usually within walking distance or transit distance in cities. As larger corporate supermarkets began to take over the market and undercut competition, they killed off more and more independent grocers who could no longer afford to compete. At the same time, the format of grocery stores was shifting from a small storefront that carried most of the products you needed to a massive, sprawling warehouse with ridiculous variety. "You could go to five or six stores, or just one." With less available room for massive stores in urban areas, they became something that was more spread out, and thus something you'd need a car to travel to. A large aspect of the decision-making on where to purchase real estate for those larger stores was based on segregation and white flight. There's a reason that the issue of food deserts is also often called food apartheid.
Mass shoplifting could ruin your communities access to a wide selection of cheap essential and non essential food stuffs and short changes the people who actually created the food. Doing that just because they should pay the cart pusher more doesn't seem smart.
Dude, the whole tall tale about a "shoplifting surge" is absolutely fake. as. hell. People are not shoplifting en masse, and the only type of theft that large stores such as Walmart are not insured against is theft by employees.
if you genuinely managed to disrupt the the status quo at GROCERY STORES and drove your local locations away
This has literally never happened. Shoplifting is not a revolutionary act, but that's basically the only thing you've got correct here.
That's not at all why food deserts exist in the US. Food deserts are a multi-part issue, and the two largest issues are the closure of small independent stores and the increased popularity of very large physical stores. Independent grocers were woven throughout urban and rural communities alike for much of American history, and were usually within walking distance or transit distance in cities. As larger corporate supermarkets began to take over the market and undercut competition, they killed off more and more independent grocers who could no longer afford to compete. At the same time, the format of grocery stores was shifting from a small storefront that carried most of the products you needed to a massive, sprawling warehouse with ridiculous variety. "You could go to five or six stores, or just one." With less available room for massive stores in urban areas, they became something that was more spread out, and thus something you'd need a car to travel to. A large aspect of the decision-making on where to purchase real estate for those larger stores was based on segregation and white flight. There's a reason that the issue of food deserts is also often called food apartheid.
Dude, the whole tall tale about a "shoplifting surge" is absolutely fake. as. hell. People are not shoplifting en masse, and the only type of theft that large stores such as Walmart are not insured against is theft by employees.
This has literally never happened. Shoplifting is not a revolutionary act, but that's basically the only thing you've got correct here.