MIDTOWN MANHATTAN — The price of soda has never been higher — at least not for the security guard who tried to stop someone from stealing one on a warm Thursday afternoon.

At around 2:50 p.m., chaos broke out at the Duane Reade on Third Avenue and East 52nd Street. A store security guard noticed a man attempting to slip out with a single can of soda — and decided to confront him.

What followed wasn’t just another shoplifting incident. It was a brutal stabbing in broad daylight.

According to NYPD and eyewitness reports, the confrontation escalated rapidly. Words were exchanged. Tempers flared. And then the blade came out.

The suspect, described by sources as visibly agitated, pulled a knife and slashed the guard in the hand and shoulder. Blood spattered across the tile as stunned customers backed away. The assailant fled the scene immediately, disappearing into the Midtown crowd.

As of Thursday evening, the suspect remained at large. Police had not confirmed whether he actually made off with the soda — a detail that borders on absurd, given the violence left in his wake.

The guard, whose name has not been released, was taken to a local hospital where he is in stable condition, recovering from what doctors described as “non-life-threatening but traumatic” injuries.

“It’s disgusting,” said one passerby who witnessed the aftermath. “You try to stop someone from stealing a drink, and you end up in an ambulance? This city is losing its mind.”

This latest act of retail violence is part of a troubling pattern in the Big Apple. While official NYPD stats tout record lows in shootings and murders, knife crimes — particularly in everyday public spaces — are surging.

Just one day earlier, two people were stabbed in a random attack at Grand Central Station by a man later identified as 34-year-old Gavin Ferguson from The Bronx. Ferguson was charged with attempted murder after evading police for hours.

And last weekend, a man was hospitalized with a knife still embedded in his neck following a fight in a Manhattan subway station.

This isn’t even the first time Duane Reade — one of New York’s most ubiquitous pharmacy chains — has been the site of a violent stabbing. In June of last year, another young security guard was seriously wounded during a similar attempted shoplifting incident, just blocks from Thursday’s attack.

Retail workers in the city say they’re growing increasingly afraid to do their jobs.

“Corporate tells us to deter shoplifting,” said one anonymous Walgreens employee. “But nobody trains you for someone pulling a knife over soda. It’s terrifying.”

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union has been pushing for more protections for store workers amid what they call “a rising tide of frontline violence.” The union’s president, Stuart Appelbaum, issued a statement Thursday night calling for “urgent reforms.”

“Shoplifting is a problem,” Appelbaum said. “But it should never be handled on the backs of underpaid workers forced to put their lives at risk.”

Experts also note that the desperation behind petty thefts — like stealing food or drinks — is often a symptom of deeper economic and mental health crises.

“There’s a reason this isn’t about flat-screen TVs or designer clothes,” said Dr. Janelle Harris, a sociologist at CUNY. “When someone is willing to stab over a can of soda, it’s not about profit — it’s about survival, rage, or untreated mental illness. Maybe all three.”

In a city where billionaires dine near food pantries, and pharmacies lock up deodorant, this stabbing feels emblematic of deeper dysfunctions. An overworked security guard. A desperate thief. And a system where both are victims in different ways.

Still, for Midtown residents, the takeaway is simpler: no place feels safe.

“You don’t expect this in the middle of the afternoon,” said Sandra Liu, a nurse who walked by minutes after the attack. “If it’s not the subway, it’s the pharmacy. Where are we supposed to feel okay?”

As investigators review surveillance footage and continue their search for the attacker, Duane Reade released a brief statement expressing concern for the injured guard and promising to assist law enforcement “in any way possible.”

Meanwhile, New Yorkers are left to grapple with a brutal irony: a $2 soda may cost one man weeks of pain, trauma, and recovery.

And the rest of us? Just a little more fear, served cold.