Shoplifting is traumatizing to employees not just because they must contend with the implied threat of violence that goes along with brazen all-day theft. Shoplifting without consequences also attracts people you don’t want to spend time around.

Oh, yes, you can say that the thieves need help and deserve our compassion — if you ignore the fact that they’re mostly selling the stuff they steal for drug money and if you’re not bumping into them at your workplace.

The disorder spills outside. Until two years ago, this street corner never featured aggressive beggars or drug-addled people fighting on the sidewalk. But that’s who your “customers” become when the goods are “free.” Last week, an off-duty cop shot a knife-wielding assailant just outside an uptown Duane Reade.

Now the Midtown Rite Aid’s chronic shoplifters have claimed collateral damage in people’s livelihoods. Yes, Rite Aid says that employees at this store can work at another one. But as the company isn’t opening any new store to replace this one, Manhattan is losing employment for people who don’t have a job yet but might like one.