My mom worked at Macy's and reported endless problems with organized shoplifting in the 1980's and 1990's. One time a whole family came into the Men's clothing department after her shift, the dad kept the clerk distracted, the mom and the kids took a few racks of suits and loaded them into their car.
She said that the security guards were loathe to use force on anyone because Macy's could get sued; that didn't stop shoplifters from running over a security guard in the parking lot.
I worked at a supermarket where the security was entirely undercover (probably because they were more afraid of us stealing than the customers) and I knew nothing about the security until the day I saw a massively overweight woman tackle a man who was leaving the store.
I read this book
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Mafia-Ethnic-Succession-Organiz...
which describes similar organized theft organizations working in the 1970s, how the goods were fenced, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Mafia-Ethnic-Succession-Organiz...
It reads like the songs that KRS-One wrote 20 years later.