Youngest going through a phase

My youngest son who just turned 9 in December is going through some kind of phase.

He is all of a sudden not paying attention in class and not doing classwork and keeps trying to get out of doing homework. We thought it might have been related to him needing glasses, but now he HAS glasses and it is still going on.

He is developing a bad attitude, also. Hopefully it is just a phase he’s going through.

He also has started stealing, he tried to steal bug spray the other day but I made him put it back and told him that next time I will take him up to see the manager, which I do regret not doing at that time. This wasn’t the first time though, it’s usually gum or small toys that I have him return to the shelf. The times that I did tell the manager, all they said was, awe he’s so cute and don’t do it anything. But that really doesn’t teach him anything if at all really.

Does anyone have a child that sounds like this? How do you handle it?