[joshj19]

This exactly. The net benefit to Amazon from improved customer service is likely worth the potential for a few lost products. Sure may be wrong, but to them it may just be a cost of doing business. It's not unlike many department store's policy of not targeting a shoplifter-in-action in a mall, especially once they've left the store (mostly for liability reasons).

[SyneRyder]

Interesting. I was at a mall last week where a security guard had caught a shoplifter, and the guard was downright friendly with the guy. It appeared that he was just going to let him go. The guard was asking the guy whether he'd shoplifted before, why he did it etc, but in a very relaxed conversational way. I hadn't thought of it as a customer service policy (both not to scare customers and keeping a potential future customer).

I also talked to a science-fiction / hobby store owner years ago, who mentioned that most of the shoplifters they caught had also been their best customers. (His policy was to ban them from the store, though.)

[ghshephard]

"many department store's policy of not targeting a shoplifter-in-action in a mall"

Citation? I've never heard of such a policy. Every mall I've had knowledge of had a very extensive security organization that was pretty effective at targeting shoplifters-in-action.

[mscarborough]

Apart from personal experience working in grocery stores, where nobody really cares, there is this: http://marga.voxpublica.org/2012/08/shoplifting-and-magnetic...

Depends on where you go and which mall. Strip malls are a lot less effective with countering shoplifters than the 'real' malls.