Walgreens closing 5 San Francisco stores due to 'organized retail crime'

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Walgreens-closing-5-Sf-stores-crime-shoplifting-16527801.php

by andyxor • 5 years ago

97 93 5 years ago

During this time to help combat this issue, we increased our investments in security measures in stores across the city to 46 times our chain average in an effort to provide a safe environment.”

I wonder how they arrived at this number of 46x.

46x the chain average of single minutes spent reviewing security staff resumes?

46x the chain average of security camera photos sent to LEOs?

46x the average number of bic lighters placed further back? No, up more? No, up and back higher, like where you can't reach? No, they can really jump that high, so up higher?

throwawaylinux3• 5 years ago

I don't get it. Are you making a joke that's gone over my head?

our investments in security measures in stores

Clearly this refers to their dollar expenditure on security measures, however that had been accounted.

vnchr2• 5 years ago

Most Walgreens don’t have dedicated security guards. If these stores had guards working all operating hours (2-3 shifts per day, every day) and some stores might have employed multiple security guards, the multiple is there.

sammalloy2• 5 years ago

I want to add to your comment, that the problem with Walgreens security in SF is well known, far before the issues with the changes in the law took front and center. I actually had a conversation with a friend about how bad their security was back in 2007. The issue is purely one of store layout and design. They could easily fix that and solve most of the problem.

rmk5• 5 years ago

36x 0.5 cents is 18 dollars. So they started spending on security and it made them unprofitable perhaps. Retail runs on razor thin margins, so there may be some substance to this 36x number.

sokoloff• 5 years ago

36x 0.5 cents is 18 dollars.

That would be 18 cents.

short12• 5 years ago

I don't believe the trope that retail makes razor thin margins. Considering most major retailers including Walgreens make profit hand over fist

zthrowaway• 5 years ago

Turns out defunding the police and not enforcing laws has consequences.

dragonwriter• 5 years ago

San Francisco never defunded the police. (IIRC, voters passed a measure eliminating a mininum funding mandate, but the actual budget has increased.)

The SFPD may choose not to enforce laws, but I don't think anyone outside of SFPD directed that, it's just organized nonfeasance as leadership political protest.

google2341232• 5 years ago

organized nonfeasance as leadership political protest

Nope, this is fake news. You should learn more about your DA Chesa Boudin. He rarely brings cases to trial, fired a bunch of prosecutors and 30 others have left, and removed cash bail which puts repeat offenders right back on the street after arrest.

cmelbye• 5 years ago

SFPD was facing a shortage of new recruits this summer: https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/06/24/san-francisco-g...

The political and social climate in SF has led to a situation where the number of officers on the street can shrink even if the budget stays flat or grows.

Veliladon• 5 years ago

SF went from $668 million in 19/20 to $661 million in 20/21 for the SFPD, mainly due to police not being required as much at SFO.

If the police can't stop crime and enforce the laws of 47 square miles and 874,961 residents for the princely sum of $755 per person/year or $14 million per square mile/year what exactly are people paying for? Like if I told you that you pay $62/mo for a police subscription and this was the service you were going to get for it, would you still subscribe to it? Probably not.

It's a protection racket. Lower the police budget even in a non-meaningful way just a little and they hold the city to ransom. Just scrap it and start again from scratch, perhaps trying Peelian principles instead of relying on the corrupted outgrowth of slave hunter patrols.

speedybird8• 5 years ago

Police aren't good for much if you don't have a competent prosecutor who sees fit to prosecute criminals. Catch-and-release policing is a waste of everybody's time. And when the police misbehave, who is it that frequently neglects to prosecute them? The prosecutors, again. Who elects shitty prosecutors? Who elects shitty sheriffs? Who elect city councils and mayors who nominate shitty police chiefs?

All fingers point back to the electorate.

nostromo2• 5 years ago

This has nothing to do with policing and everything to do with local prosecutors, judges, and city leadership.

chrismcb• 5 years ago

I thought it had more to do with the fact that <$950 shoplifting is considered a misdemeanor, and basically not worth the police's time to enforce it... because the prosecutor doesn't prosecute.

Burning it down to the ground, and rebuilding will of course create pretty much the same thing, and probably worse.

potiuper2• 5 years ago

Getting closer to being a capitalist utopia. No retail stores, no theft. All items have to be ordered online, rule by code. It would be interesting to know the stores financial statements to see if this was just an excuse to get rid of the retail footprint due to sales & property tax in SF. The current building demand with low interest rates and COVID re-opening should more than compensate the remodeling costs.

gruez5• 5 years ago

People flagrantly disregarding property rights is a "capitalist utopia"?

bryan0• 5 years ago

Discussion from a few months ago when Target reduced SF store hours due to retail theft: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27718204

nimos• 5 years ago

Surprised how far out those stores are - only the 300 Gough St one is really close to the Tenderloin.

kevin_thibedeau• 5 years ago

You want to be where the police aren't. A bank near me gets robbed a few times a year because the neighborhood is safe and isolated enough that the city mostly avoids stationing officers nearby.

lookalike74• 5 years ago

How do they know that, are they exit polling the robbers?

speedybird8• 5 years ago

The organized retail theft gangs have get-away cars (often nice ones.) They can drive to wherever the pickings are good.

zz8652• 5 years ago

Rodriguez is finally in jail, but he rode the city’s revolving door of justice to allegedly rip off Walgreens 37 times this year. He was particularly partial to the drug store at 91-08 Roosevelt Ave. in Jackson Heights, which he hit 23 times, police said.

woodruffw9• 5 years ago

The NY Post has an editorial incentive to hype up cases like this. Having lived in the city my entire life: I've never heard anything remotely similar to this. It's a bit like the guy who keeps trying to steal subway trains[1]: you can write a great breathless article about him, but there's still only one of him.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darius_McCollum

gruez5• 5 years ago

you can write a great breathless article about him, but there's still only one of him.

Right, but even if 46 arrests in a year isn't representative of the median shoplifter, it's still an appalling example. Why is the justice system so ineffective that a shoplifter is allowed to be arrested 46 times in a year? You'd think by the 4th or 5th one he'd be denied bail.

speedybird8• 5 years ago

Maybe this Rodriguez is the single guy in the city who decided to make crime a career. Or maybe he's the single guy the city permitted to get away with it for so long. No systemic problems, just one particular guy who is singled out for exceptionally tolerant treatment by the system.. for some reason.

Probably not though. I bet there are dozens if not hundreds more like him.

rgergerger4• 5 years ago

In a few years we will be hearing about all the food deserts in San Francisco and how they stem from racism and white supremacy...

BobbyJo7• 5 years ago

Historic racism -> Intergenerational poverty -> Crime -> Area divestment -> Food desert.

adventured• 5 years ago

That's fascinating. I grew up in an area - Appalachia, specifically an area among the poorest regions east of the Mississippi - with entrenched forever poverty, and vast underinvestment in pretty much every way you could name. It never occurred to anyone to put together organized retail crime gangs and endlessly plunder local stores until they were all forced to close.

What other excuses do you have?

FormerBandmate• 5 years ago

It’s kinda weird that crime slumped as poverty skyrocketed in the 2008 recession. You would think crime would be higher in 2008 and 2009 than 2007 but instead it plummeted

throwawaylinux3• 5 years ago

Bombarded with suffocating propaganda telling them that society considers them subhuman and they will never succeed on their own merits and their only option is to rely on the benevolence and generosity of the brave and wonderful allies who have taken pity on them. -> Demoralization and withdrawal from constructive participation in society. -> Crime, poverty. -> Poor disadvantaged people stay dependent, on the bottom. -> Self proclaimed allies pushing these policies remain on top and continue to allegedly be the only ones who will fix the problems.

I'm beginning to prefer that theory. Explains some motives a little better.

emerged• 5 years ago

Historic racism -> Intergenerational poverty -> chaos -> Quantum mechanics -> Hawking radiation -> Black hole

Now we are all dead. Thanks, racism.

woodruffw9• 5 years ago

It's pretty unlikely that Walgreens is included in the USDA's definition of a food desert. I believe the most nutritious things available for sale there are dry cereal and maybe bananas.

boulos• 5 years ago

Depends on the Walgreens location. Some have effectively a little grocer inside (gallons of milk, some fruits and vegetables, pasta, bread, etc.).

throwaway3776• 5 years ago

Throwaway, but I can assure you as an SF resident, most of us are more than happy to see Walgreens go.

They pay and treat their employees terribly along with pushing junk food and other garbage to people just trying to fill a prescription.

We are excited for quality, owner operated pharmacies to return and replace them. Just like they served us before Walgreens came in and muscled them all out of business.

It’s almost as if not looking out for your community results in that community not looking out for you.

gruez5• 5 years ago

We are excited for quality, owner operated pharmacies to return and replace them. Just like they served us before Walgreens came in and muscled them all out of business.

What makes you think that the owner operated pharmacies won't be targeted by shoplifters? Are a significant chunk of the shoplifters doing it for ideological reasons?

It’s almost as if not looking out for your community results in that community not looking out for you.

Sounds like victim blaming to me. The whole point of having laws and law enforcement is to have an official way to pay your dues to the community and get protection in return, rather than having to pay for "protection" from the community itself.

atatatat5• 5 years ago

What makes you think that the owner operated pharmacies won't be targeted by shoplifters?

Footage from the LA Riots.

grandmczeb2• 5 years ago

I’m also a SF resident and the above comment does not represent the vast majority of people here. A good example is Ahsha Safai’s comment (the supervisor for district 11):

“I am completely devastated by this news - this Walgreens is less than a mile from seven schools and has been a staple for seniors, families and children for decades. This closure will significantly impact this community.”

https://twitter.com/ahsha_safai/status/1447988178586013698?s...

staticautomatic2• 5 years ago

That comment is about the value of a store like Walgreens. It's not praise of the Walgreens brand.

rmk5• 5 years ago

That's all nice to say when you are not one of the Walgreens employees who may lose a job as a result of the closures, right?

Owner-operated pharmacies have been out of business for decades. I'm sure you yearn for the days of Blockbuster video or, better still, your neighborhood video stores. No Netflix for you, right?

atatatat5• 5 years ago

Owner-operated pharmacies have been out of business for decades.

Check out anywhere in the US more than 100 miles from an Ocean

proc0• 5 years ago

You think they'll stop at Walgreens? Lol. I suspect this is only the beginning. You should understand that the political incumbents don't care because there is nothing stopping them or holding them accountable. That way of thinking will guarantee they stay in power, so they'll continue their experiments.

jollybean• 5 years ago

I feel this is a naive assessment.

Walgreens is not 'pushing' anything on anyone - people make choices to buy Doritos.

More importantly -> they're going there for the Doritos as much as anything else.

Walgreens has incredible economies of scale and operational expertise. They know what people want, they know how to keep the shelves stocked efficiently, which is not exactly novel, but it's hard for mom and pop shops to do.

If SF residents truly wanted 'independent pharmacies' for prescriptions, they would have been using them already.

As far as 'employee treatment' - maybe there is something there, but I'm doubtful if it rises to the threshold that we'd want them closed.

'The Problem' is entirely San Francisco's insane attitudes towards crime.

And finally, most poignantly, those criminals will steal from the 'locally owned stores' just as well, and they won't have 500 other locations to absorb the losses.

This is an SF civic problem.

Get SF to act rationally - and then - maybe it's possible to have a discussion about 'locally owned' shops etc..

ziml77• 5 years ago

I've been to multiple Walgreens and none of them have pushed junk food on anyone. In fact, the most direct path from the entrance to the pharmacy hasn't even contained the food. That's always been on the opposite side of the store.

atatatat5• 5 years ago

Mine has a tower of Pringles, minimum.

zardo• 5 years ago

Walgreens is losing money and shutting down hundreds of stores nation wide.

throwoutway• 5 years ago

During this time to help combat this issue, we increased our investments in security measures in stores across the city to 46 times our chain average in an effort to provide a safe environment.”

From the article. This isn’t normal

xrd3• 5 years ago

I wonder if there is some Marxist website somewhere celebrating this.

These huge businesses like Walmart, Walgreens and Starbucks target and study successful mom and pop businesses and then move in ruthlessly. In Portland I've seen so many great local businesses destroyed because they couldn't compete with the large chains. And, if that eventually doesn't work out for the chain, they close up shop.

Amazon and Walmart have destroyed small mom and pop grocery stores across the country.

I bet these retail gangs wouldn't go after a mom and pop shop of any kind. The owner would probably fight them with their bare hands. That's why they are going after Walgreens.

In some weird way, this feels like capitalism, actually. It's just a hidden facet we don't see often.

DantesKite• 5 years ago

I bet these retail gangs wouldn't go after a mom and pop shop of any kind. The owner would probably fight them with their bare hands. That's why they are going after Walgreens.

That's a big assumption...If elderly Asian people are being attacked on the streets, I don't think their moral code extends to mom and pop shops, even if they're willing to throw down, unless they bring out guns.

staticautomatic2• 5 years ago

Wait, what? You think it's retail gangs committing the anti-Asian violence? Based on what?

zz8652• 5 years ago

I'd think Amazon is a big influence too. Traditionally these pharmacies sell stuff a huge markups, its amazing how much cheaper OTC medicines and lotions are online. These big pharmacy chains are on borrowed time even without the shoplifting.

Walgreens closing 5 San Francisco stores due to 'organized retail crime'

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