Its primary focus was to reduce the prison population. The alternative situation here is this individual gets a felony charge, goes to prison, and comes out with no opportunities further exacerbating the problem as what options do they have now outside of theft/worse options?

Its a situation where as a society, we collectively lose more if we start locking people up and throwing away the key for non-violent actions. It sucks to be the business owner in this situation, but the business will survive. Not to defend the thief, but we don't know their circumstances. They could be stealing for fun or they could be stealing because they have mouths to feed.