And some idiot said, shoplifting is no big deal as stores can just write it off

[theking]

..Fact is, it not only impact the stores and it's employees but also impact the community especially those that depends on those stores:

Walgreens is closing five of its stores in San Francisco, citing rampant shoplifting. Residents say the loss of the drugstores could harm the community. The company has struggled with shoplifting for years and has closed 10 stores in the city since 2019.

[theking]

‘Walgreens fed my family’: inside the San Francisco stores closing over ‘retail theft’


n mid-October Walgreens announced the impending closure of five of its San Francisco stores. “Retail theft” had risen to unsustainable levels despite increased investment in security, the chain said. It was time to give up.

In the months before the announcement, viral videos of brazen shoplifting attempts at Walgreens locations in the city – including one that appeared to show a man riding his bike out of a store with a trash bag filled with stolen items – had put it at the center of a heated national debate over fears of a pandemic-induced “crime wave”.

To critics of San Francisco’s leaders, the closures seemed to confirm a narrative long held by people outside the city and increasingly by those within: that San Francisco is a lawless place where officials turn a blind eye to crime, to local businesses’ detriment. Political leaders, including Mayor London Breed, pointed at Walgreens. “When a place is not generating revenue and when they’re saturated – Walgreens has a lot of Walgreens locations all over the city – I do think there are other factors that come into play,” Breed told reporters.

But neighborhood representative s and advocates for people caught in the legal system paint a more complex picture of Walgreens’ role in San Francisco and the city’s struggles with shoplifting in recent years.

They described Walgreens stores as vital places where San Franciscans can get staple foods at a reasonable price and pick up medication and other last-minute essentials. “We have seniors, working families and longtime customers and I think it’s going to be extremely disruptive, especially for older people who are more pattern-based,” Ahsha Safai said of the closures.

Safai represents the Excelsior District, just outside the historically Latino Mission District, on San Francisco’s board of supervisors. The neighborhood’s Walgreens, which closed on 11 November, sat on a bustling stretch of Mission Street, surrounded by clothing stores, banks, and locally owned eateries. On a Tuesday afternoon in the weeks before it was closing, the store was lively with seniors picking up items and residents waiting to be called up to the pharmacy counter.

Many shoppers hop off the nearby bus lines to get to the Walgreens, making it a convenient stop in a high-traffic area where parking can be abysmal, Safai said. The foot traffic from nearby shops feeds the Walgreens and vice versa, making the drugstore an important piece of the neighborhood’s retail ecosystem.

Safai said he had been working with police and community organizations to address retail crime in his neighborhood. “For the most egregious, there has to be consequences. People have to know they can’t walk into the store with a garbage bag,” he said.

“But we’re not gonna incarcerate our way out of this problem,” he cautioned. “We have to redirect people to the right path.”

‘Walgreens was essential’
Gina Mullins’ father has been working for Walgreens for more than 40 years, first in the Mission District and then in the East Bay. She recalls going to company picnics growing up and would opt to shop at a Walgreens over CVS because of her family’s long history with the company. “Walgreens is a big, big part of my life. It sounds corny but it fed my family.”

Mullins now lives in the East Bay, where she sees her local Walgreens showing telltale signs of theft concerns. More and more items are locked behind plexiglass, she said, and some shelves are consistently empty. While she’s frustrated by the wait required to get a store employee to unlock the products, she doesn’t judge those who shoplift from the store out of necessity. “I understand tough times, don’t judge anybody. Do what you gotta do to feed your family.”

Before moving across the Bay Bridge, Mullins worked in public housing near the Walgreens location on Cesar Chavez Street in the Mission District. She got flu shots for her four children there and would pick up kitchen staples for lower prices than at her local chain grocery store. The location is scheduled to close on 17 November.

“That Walgreens was essential, at least for my family,” Mullins said of the Mission District location. “It’s closer than Safeway, has more items than the corner store, and they have a pharmacy attached. It’s been a staple, so to see them shutting down in neighborhoods that really need them is heartbreaking.”

[DuMa]

Looks like an organized crime. How it works.

The broker has a warehouse somewhere.  He would buy all stolen goods and then flip it on flea bay. This would be an incentive to turn shoplifters into a full time employee. 

If you are that good at stealing chit, go steal something that cost a lot of money.  Make it worth while for your talent.  What is there that cost a lot of money at walgreen? 

The closing of these stores might have a different underlying issue.  How do we know that these were already failed stores and needs an excuse for a bail out? 

[TsovTom]

AOC approves, bLm acts, nancy pelosi's lack of care, and the DA's failure/unwillingness to prosecute...th ey are as dumb as a rock!