The only people upset about the "stealing" are the companies that let it happen.

Said this the other day - 30 years ago I worked retail, our security would detain you in a secure office with cameras, and let the police handle you.

Every security shift had at least one cop working security as a second job, or were retired cops.

These companies stopped detaining shoplifters because their insurance gave them a deal not to. Well, then they don't get to complain about theft.

Self-checkout likely has little bearing, since the systems use scales, have an attendant watching, and use cameras on your face and the checkout itself.

I smell a lot of bullshit. There's no way the vendors of these systems didn't address all this stuff before deploying them - otherwise they could be held contractually liable for failures. No way vendor security leadership, nor the grocery chain security leadership let these systems go out without addressing these concerns.