True. A more rational approach would probably be to just hire an off duty cop to act as security for awhile til the “youths” decided to move on to another area. You can get a cop for about $20-$25 per hour which is cheap compared to 10-12 “youths” stealing $500-$800 or so in clothing in one strike.
I’d take the 5-800 dollar hit over paying someone 160-200 a day to guard the store. I guard it myself for the most part.
I’m pretty safe, while I have items here that are worth north of 1000 bucks, they are either 4-600 pounds or need special packaging to bring them home. you can’t just stuff them in your pocket and carry them out and having anything worth anything by the time you get out to your car and away.