I wouldn't bother arguing the point with stores these days

The invasion was successful and is complete

Aussies were manipulated through their basic honesty and inherent politeness -- decades ago -- to comply with US brainwashing

The inference by stores was:  ' If you object to showing us your bags, it must mean you're a thief with something to hide'

Honest people value their reputation, so were anxious to prove --- by allowing strangers to peer into their belongings -- that they were indeed honest had did not have anything to hide.  Catch 22

We used to have stores staffed by people who 'served' customers.  Customers paid at the counter.  Their honesty was not put in doubt by store owners.  Store owners knew that staff theft was the major problem

Along came supermarkets and whatever places such as Target and K-mart are called.  Lots of stuff on display.  Serve yourself.  Queue to pay.  Only allowed out of the cage by proving you haven't stolen anything from the cage by opening one's bag and other belongings

Retailers gained massive additional profits via the scheme

People these days are not raised to value and protect their reputation, generally speaking

They sat in a shopping trolley and watched hundreds of times their parent being forced by stores to prove their innocence by opening their bag

Those toddlers grew up believing they had to prove their innocence.  They were programmed to accept they are automatically regarded as thieves by stores

Wonder if anyone's conducted research into what this has done to people's sense of confidence and self-worth ?

After all, in courts of law, a person is considered innocent and must be PROVED guilty

Big US stores turned that concept on its head

There's something else to be considered:   ' Call a dog a bad name .... da da da '

Our ancestors knew that if a person was wrongfully accused for long enough ( 'Calling a dog a bad name ...)  then there was strong liklihood that person would eventually become the person they were wrongly accused of being

So have K-mart and Target and the rest unwittingly created a large group of thieves through their store policy of regarding all customers as potential thieves ?   I think they might have.  And I believe they know it.  Very possibly they now use that to justify their assault on Australians with their ' We believe you have a stolen item in your possession, therefore we demand to look in your bag '

Another aspect of treating all Aussies (I'm focusing on Aussies here, but it applies worldwide) as thieves is the degradation of respect -- degradation of the self-esteem of a nation.  And of course, it's another brick removed from the wall as far as people's privacy is concerned.  We're now seeing more advanced methods of breaking people down and forcing them to accept increasing lack of rights and privacy at the hands of Google, Youtube, Facebook, et al