It depends, I remember friends of mine did that in middle school and they convinced the deli man to pay them what he paid for the boxes after he sold them, then kind of just kept that going. I’m sure some people steal them, but there’s a bunch of ways to do it. The article says that one woman was given the box by a shelter worker, another was given the box at the store after saying she had no money, and another bought them for half of wholesale price on the block. They just recently got her too, so I’m sure you can imagine if you have long-standing ties to a shopkeeper or something it can be easier