One day, our listener Meghan went to the drugstore to pick up some supplies, only to run into a problem: The simple lotion and soap she needed—and seemingly everything else in the store—were all locked up behind plexiglass. She began to wonder, what was the point? Sure, the plexiglass prevented people from stealing, but didn’t it also prevent them from buying anything? So Meghan wrote to Decoder Ring to ask: How are these retailers making any money? And is there really an epidemic of shoplifting?

In this episode, Willa taps Alexander Sammon, a Slate features writer, to help answer Meghan’s question. Alex recently investigated the retail theft panic and traced it straight to the source. Willa and Alex get into what’s really fueling this new narrative around shoplifting—and who it really serves.

It’s the latest installment of Decoder Rings Back, our series where Willa reaches out to a listener to personally answer their burning question about a cultural mystery, available exclusively to Slate Plus subscribers.

This episode was produced by Max Freedman. Our show is also produced by Willa Paskin, Alesandra Tejeda, and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.

If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.