If you had ever run a small retail business with limited staff, you would know just how expensive being overwhelmed by large numbers of kids can be. Only a minority steal, but you can't I.D. the problem kids until you catch them. In all my working experience I had only one kid come up to me and report another kid for shoplifting. A thousand bucks worth of stock can go out the door almost as fast as it came in. It doesn't take much of that to hurt a small retailer.
Our mall stores are all equipped with the anti theft things attached to clothes. So I don't for a minute think it has to do with shoplifting.
I think they would have done better to hire security and get rid of the trouble makers rather than throw out the baby with the bathwater.