Walgreens said Tuesday that it will close five more stores in San Francisco next month because of organized retail theft in another blow to a city that has earned an embarrassing reputation for widespread and brazen shoplifting.
The stores will close down next month, SFGATE reported. It said Walgreens has closed at least 10 stores in the city since the start of 2019.
“Retail theft across our San Francisco stores has continued to increase in the past few months to five times our chain average” despite large increases in security, Walgreens spokesperson Phil Caruso said.
San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safai said he was devastated by the loss of a Mission Street store that “has been a staple for seniors, families and children for decades.”
“This is a sad day for San Francisco,” Safai told SFGATE. “We can’t continue to let these anchor institutions close that so many people rely on.”
Last year, Walgreens closed one store where the chain said it was losing $1,000 a day to thefts.
Frustration and fear over thefts have been fueled by widely circulating images of shoplifting caught on video. This summer, shoplifters in masks carrying armfuls of designer handbags sprinted from a downtown Neiman Marcus department store and into getaway cars.
In June, a masked man was caught on video at a Walgreens, stuffing items into a trash bag before cruising out of the store on a bicycle. A suspect was arrested in that theft.
Last month, Mayor London Breed and Police Chief Bill Scott announced that they will dedicate more police, beef up coordination and make it easier to report shoplifters.
The strategy aims to counter thieving that has added to the liberal city’s reputation as being soft on crime.
“We care about criminal justice reform. We care about second chances. We care about making sure that people are not wrongly accused,” Breed in announcing the new measures. “But don’t take our kindness for weakness, our compassion for weakness.”
(AP)
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13 Responses
Didn’t see in any of Walgreens statements a mention of Biden.
Sounds like their problem is poor product control.
classic
It’s not Biden’s America it’s because of newsom’s California
Who makes theft less than $1,000 decriminalized?
The question that begs to be asked is… do they have gender neutral displays in Walgreens? Furthermore maybe they can pass a law making it illegal for stores to charge people for the items they buy if the items are poor. Because it’s discriminatory to make poor people pay the same as people who have money.
YWN, how did Biden get into the picture?
I love the way he says, “Don’t take our compassion for weakness.” Guess what, dude. Compassion for criminals IS weakness
What does this have to do with Biden?
YWN claims to be news but in reality it is just biased headlines that seek to falsely frame a narrative and reduce complex matters to silly soundbites. Hopefully YWN readership is smart enough to see past the editors attempts to cloud perspective and create false narratives.
Retail theft is a local police problem. It’s not in Biden’s domain.
oy the bnai cinaan…his mo to his kids was and is
אהוב את הגזל
אין כל חדש תחת השמש
Sedom
LOL
“Last month, Mayor London Breed and Police Chief Bill Scott announced that they will dedicate more police, beef up coordination and make it easier to report shoplifters.”
LAUGH! LAUGH! AND LAUGH!
WHAT A JOKE THE POLICE CAN ONLY MAKE ARREST IF SOMEONE DOES SOMETHING ILLEGAL, LIKE DAVEN WITH A MINUN, BUT SHOPLIFTING? THAT IS COMPTLY LEGAL.
To all the racists on YWN making disparaging remarks about those patronizing Walgreens and our 2nd black president: This is not shoplifting! These are reparations that are owed from last century for the terrible aveira of slavery. The reparations that are being taken now are similar to what Hashem rewarded the Jews with, ie all the jewelry and possessions of the mitzriyim after Hashem redeemed the Jews from the slavery of mitzrayim.