I worked at a clothing store at a mall for a short time in college, it sucked. Anyway, shoplifting was extremely common, especially the items that someone can stuff in your pocket or purse like perfumes. I think there was a study that showed that most people don't go into a store with the intention to shoplift, they just do it because the opportunity arises and they think they can get away with it. Mall there are no security, department stores they have the "loss prevention" people so regular employees don't worry about it, I assume he is describing a mall situation.
The employees at our store were taught to make a "recovery statement" when they suspected someone planning to shoplift an item. Recovery statement is when you walk up to the person, lets say they have grabbed a shirt and appear on their way out the door, and you say something like "Hey just a reminder if you get 2 shirts you get bla bla." The idea is to let the person know that you are aware that they have the item, so there is a chance that he or she will put it back or whatever because they know u know. But yea they told us never to call the police, they would rather have people steal a few items a day then have police show up at the store and get a bad reputation, so idk what this manager was thinking.