Over the past couple of years, I’ve been able to observe crime in the Greater Green Bay area, and one trend that I’ve noticed that never seems to subside is retail theft or shoplifting. It shows no signs of stopping heading into 2026. And as this problem progresses, those losses will only get passed on to honest consumers.

Youth offenders remain at the heart of the problem. These are poorly parented kids that will swarm a store in packs. One member of the group will distract the employees, while the youngest member will do the actually stealing. This is done intentionally because the offenders understand the optics behind a smaller child being reprimanded on a cell phone camera. Even if they actually stole the item.

Baby carriages are also a popular tool. Once again, the optics of searching a baby carriage, sometimes with an actual infant being crowded by the stolen merchandise, is designed to put security in a tough space and subject to scrutiny.

Property management and store leadership: Also aren’t doing their part, especially in the retail district in Ashwaubenon. Employees and security personnel are often told to stand down and not take any action because of the appearance of poor organization and prevention. And you would be shocked to see the lack of security camera coverage in busy spaces because management doesn’t want to pay for them.

Law Enforcement does their best but they can’t be in a department store or shopping mall all of the time. And they have to make the tough decision over what to do with youth offenders who still have their whole lives ahead of them. And the offenders know this and will take advantage of them.

And it will be you and me that continue to pay the literal price. The bottom line for these chain stores will not go down. They will raise our prices to offset the theft before that happens.

So, the cycle continues until the day Green Bay consumers get tired of picking up the tab for offenders.