These people aren't shoplifting to get their needs and to propose such so am ignorance of the situation.

There was a wonderful and detailed article a while back about a baby formula shoplifting ring in the south that shows how this works. The people who are doing the shoplifting are often drug addicts who are promised cash payments or more drugs if they will go and shoplift by a middle man who then stockpiles the good and resales them on line. This isn't Jean Valjean stealing bread this is organized crime seeking to illicitly source goods.