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.
They make aluminum foil bags to prevent the scanners from reading the magnetic strips. The directions are all over the net. It also has to do with the fact that people do not go into business as babysitters, unless they open a day care center. If all the kids acted with reasonable maturity, it would be no problem, truth is, a lot of kids don't.
Extra security does not come free.
I love kids, and grandkids, but if any of mine acted like many I've had to deal with, I'd have chained them to a ring on the floor.