Can you explain more how that works? I imagine people are stealing from a company, a corporation. It lowers their profit margins, sure, but how does it have other effects?
There are too many effects to enumerate. Here are a few possibilities:
1) The company absorbs the loss. Theft continues until the company cannot absorb the loss and another option is selected.
2) The company goes out of business and everyone local must spend more travel time and travel money to go somewhere else. This creates a "food desert" that
@Yeshuasdaughter mentioned.
3) The company reduces prices by lowering wages, essentially charging the employees for the shoplifter.
4) The company reduces expenses by reducing inventory, quality, maintenance, safety, etc. In the long term, any corner-cutting measures lead to a downward spiral of ever-reducing quality until the company goes bankrupt, and option 2 is the result.
5) The company increases security - this incurs additional expenses which lower the profit margin. Ideally, this lowers the profit margin less than the theft, but it is still an extra burden which can lead to other cost-saving measures, as iterated above.
Everything has an effect and nothing is free - the expense will be paid by someone, somewhere.
Ideally, no one would
have to steal. Financial literacy, a living wage, and reasonable prices should be the norm. Of these, I think the most critical one right now is guaranteeing a living wage.