It’s a few thousands of USD. I don’t know what or even if there’s a magic cut off. But there’s some point where they seemingly no longer trust minimum wage subcontractors. Or perhaps it varies by locale… Even the Whole Foods security guards are armed where I live.

> Even the Whole Foods security guards are armed where I live

I don't remember ever having seen _any_ security guards in a grocery store before, let alone armed ones! It's possible I've mistaken some for regular employees if they wore the same uniform, but I'm fairly certain I would have noticed if they were carrying weapons...

Local grocers here (UK) have security guards (not armed!) I once saw one chasing a shoplifter; the shoplifter ran faster. But most of the time they're just standing around, diddling their mobile device.

I don't think their purpose is to deter shoplifters; it's really to deter assaults on staff. Shoplifting is just part of the cost of doing business as a grocers.

I once saw a couple of armed cops in my local grocers; UK cops are generally not armed, but these guys were carrying big old pistols as they wandered through the aisles looking for sandwiches. I'm not keen on sharing supermarket aisles with gunmen, even if they're in uniform; so I complained. Armed cops should disarm (e.g. leave their guns in the cop-car) if all they're doing is shopping for lunch. I was treated with scorn.

UK also. I reported a minor crime and had armed plod turn up on my doorstep as they were "in the area".

I rather politely told them to fuck off. (We can do without militarisation of our police service thankyou.)

I live in an EU inner city. Most of our grocery stores are quite small, so it's usually like one cashier, one person stacking shelves, and maybe extra people at peak hours to handle deliveries or open a second checkout. A security guard would definitely be out of their budget. For americans, think like a double size 7-11.

Larger stores in the suburbs definitely do, and my understanding is something like whole foods would be similarly sized to those.

I think it depends on the seller, I've had to sign for $20 items but not ones that cost a few hundred.