Shoplifting.

One day, when I was reading an anti-shoplifting brochure that just pissed me off. I will present several quotes from the brochure and explain, why exactly they pissed me off. (This one has some of the arguments I cover: http://www.troopers.state.ny.us/crime_prevention/Juvenile_Crime/Shoplifting/)

"When you see someone shoplifting, stop them! They are really stealing from you."

Bull-fucking-shit! Stealing from you would mean illegally taking property that belongs to you. If the products in the store would belong to you, there would be no need to pay for them and people would be enabled to just take them. This part of the argument is absolutely illogical, no matter how you look at it. Property of the retailer is not your property.
Not to mention, as far as I'm informed, more shrinkage (shrinkage: profit that is lost due to theft, product being damaged or running out of date) is caused by the employees than the actual shoppers, and, in most cases with the stores, it makes sense to me. Security knows all of the camera locations and, thus, can find blind spots better than anyone else and steal things themselves. Employees can carry items out of the store through the back door, conceal them on theirselves or use other tactics. Shoplifters, well, they, usually, don't have as much information about the store as the employees.
How much do you think an average retail corporation with a wide network of shops earn, even despites the shrinkage? How do you think, the big corporations can afford various advertisements (TV, mail adverts, road-side adverts and so on), when advertisements are, in general, quite expensive? How do you think that, when a shop has a sale, they still get some profit from the item sold? Why do you think they are able to have ''sales'' on holiday seasons (when, in reality, it happens so that the price of the item is bloated above usual just before the holidays, and that ''discount'' is actually the original price they had when there was no holiday season)? The retailers are fucking you, psychologically, and you are absolutely okay with that, because it is convenient, when you can go to a shop and get various stuff at the same spot without having to visit different shops as you would have to do, say, in a market.

"Shoplifting raises prices for customes."

Invalid, shoplifting does not raise prices, at least, not directly. When retailers find out they have too much shrinkage (which, as I explained, is not caused by shoplifting exclusively), they decide to bloat the prices even more than before. Most shoplifters, in fact, are never caught, and stores (the big ones, at the least) do not have an exact statistic of how much items they have lost to theft. Retailers are the one that raise prices, not the shoplifters (not to mention that certain people shoplift due to the reason that prices are already way too high).
I have read both that certain retailers have insurance against theft, some have included the potential shrinkage that normally occurs into the prices of the products they sell already, but I do not have verified information on this (and I would, propably, not believe a retailer, unless proof presented).

"Shoplifting is getting something for nothing."

False. Shoplifting is getting something without paying for it with money. It is not, however, getting something for nothing, else, we could as well as claim that casino's are selling nothing for money and lottery tickets are expensive bits of paper and nothing more. I will get deeper into this matter later.
Shoplifting requires effort, skill, willingness to risk, and sometimes chance. If you haven't shoplifted, you will propably not understand that there is effort required and the stress that you obtain when you shoplift, and that, in my opinion, is the price the shoplifter pays. A shoplifter uses his or her skills to get the item desired, an analogy of pretty much every other job. I do not claim that shoplifting is necessary a job, however, it does require effort.
As for casino's (and the lottery tickets), what they are offering is a chance, or, to be more precise, a chance of winning. When you shoplift, you have a chance of getting caught (greatly depending on your technique, environment, skill, preparation and other factors, but it is, still, a chance). Therefore, if shoplifting is getting something for nothing, lottery is selling nothing. Seems illogical, now, doesn't it?

Why people shoplift?

It is highly dependent on the individual, but it could be summed up into saying that the persons needs (or desires) are not being met. Those could be finansial (poverty), emotional (applies to mentally guided shoplifters that shoplift for the psychological effect, rather than the item itself) and others.
I shoplift, because I consider myself impoverished (after spending a summer on mostly rice, eggs and untasty sausages, I decided I do not want to repear that experience). I do not see why I should not meet my desires while others are. Another thing worth mentioning is that I disagree with the law and the authorities. I have myself to take care of, and that alone is enough justification for me to do just about anything.