> Why thousands of stores are closing in California?

Because everyone's buying everything online and getting it delivered to their homes.

Walgreen’s was closing stores anyway and used the pandemic shoplifting as an excuse… but it was never the actual reason.

Crime is at historical lows.

Even if shoplifting at Walgreens was the reason for closure, the downtowns of a few "liberal cities" (it's always the same 3-4 mentioned) are extremely unlikely to have that much impact on national statistics.

Well and good as a talking point, but violent crime is still illegal and way down.

The retail industry lobbying group itself noted that "shrink", the term for loss of revenue due to items walking off or being damaged, has remained unchanged since the 90s.

The people telling you that there is an immense wave of shoplifting are outright lying.