There's a massive difference between shoplifting and robbery, it's not just semantics.
Those who think the police aren't "bothered" with these sorts of crimes couldn't be more wrong. Most forces use the THOR/THRIVE model of grading calls simply because there's no where near enough officers to go about. The average Borough will have 15-20 officers per shift, abstractions and leave will put that to about 14 officers. That's seven cars.
-1 x car assigned to Missing people
-1 x car on a cell watch/bed watch
-1 x car dealing with prisoners in custody from the previous shift
-1 x car at the local M/H hospital trying to wait for a bed to come free.
That leaves 3 cars for 10s of thousands of people, with multiple calls throughout that shift. The calls have to be graded on threat, harm or risk. If there's a domestic incident, someone threatening suicide and a Missing child where do you think shoplifting will sit on that list of jobs? Rightly, at the bottom. It's not a lack of being bothered, risk to life comes before risk to property