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

[brooklynite]

The Guardian

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.

The Walgreens Excelsior District location three weeks before its closure. Photograph: Boris Zharkov/The Guardian
But neighborhood representatives 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.

[cadoman]

1. you can pull up a google map and still see plenty of Walgreens stores there

So maybe the event has been exaggerated and it was simply a convenient excuse for Walgreens to close stores? The last quote of the article implies as much.

[egduj]

3. What would be the upside to that?

Why would they make up a reason to close a store instead of just saying these stores aren't making money? Almost every other (legitimate) business that closes stores don't find it necessary to falsify the reason...

[cadoman]

4. I figured taxes or insurance

Pure speculation on my part, but if you've been around a while you see businesses utilize a lot of special exceptions and write off a lot of surprising things.

Maybe their accountants identified those locations as candidates for "losses from COVID-induced theft". Shutter them for six months and collect COVID funds from the government. City reacts and cracks down on theft. Walgreens reopens and the stores are more profitable with less theft.

[Demsrule86]

13. It could be the shop lifting is a contributory factor or not...no idea.

[W_HAMILTON]

7. So someone else other than them gets the blame.

After basically running smaller pharmacies around me out of business, my local Walgreens closed up shop as well -- and we're completely on the other side of the country. No evil San Francisco shoplifting mobs to blame here.

[nattyice]

10. Those aren't always updated, though

[leftstreet]

2. Meh. They had prior business plans to close stores

consolidate, cut costs, more online ordering etc

These articles just provide cover for their biz decisions

[Shellback Squid]

5. I agree, to convince the other posters, could you provide a link

to substantiate this truth that we agree on









completely

[leftstreet]

6. Sure

Most of these are recent because of the current headlines, but you can Google search business articles from 2019.

In 2019 they told the SEC they'd be closing about 200 stores.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/08/06/walgreens-store-closings-drugstore-chain-plans-close-200-stores/1937722001/

https://www.businessinsider.com/local-officials-policy-experts-walgreens-shoplifting-san-francisco-2021-10

https://www.sfgate.com/bay-area-politics/article/San-Francisco-Walgreens-closure-retail-theft-16533142.php

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/Is-shoplifting-forcing-Walgreens-to-cut-back-in-16536960.php

[Horse with no Name]

8. I'm sure it will be painted as the Godless liberals

But the Wal Mart in rural Texas closed for the same alleged reasons.
I think it is more the company giving itself cover when it pulls out of somewhere leaving huge community void.

[hlthe2b]

9. Walgreens, I've noted, has some strange pricing tactics. If you can order items online you can

often get very good pricing. But if out of stock online or you just want to pick it up at a store, the pricing can be as much as 2x (or more) the price. Case in point, I shop for an elderly house-bound neighbor from time to time and she needed some of that powdered fiber supplement. The Walgreens brand is overall less expensive than Benefiber so I was going to order her a couple of 16 oz. bottles online@7.99 with a buy one buy the second 50% off special--out of stock. I dropped by a local store and the same item was $16.99 per bottle with NO special on the purchase of two bottles honored.

Walgreens pretty much has a monopoly in Colorado, having bought out all almost all the old Riteaids, independents, and CVS--outside of those inside Target stores. So, this is pretty inexplicable to me.

Just saying. I think the company's practices are at best a little questionable, though I have shopped there for years. I don't think the PR suggesting Walgreens is some altruistic presence in San Francisco being "forced out" is likely the case, however.

[Taylor Picker]

14. I don't have a Walgreens in my town, but CVS has gone to "convenience store" pricing on many items.

I'm guessing CVS and Walgreens have fairly similar business models.
If I go across the street to a Target, I can get a popular brand of probiotic for half what CVS charges. Same with cleaning products and household staples. And not only are the prices double, but in some instances you get less in the package--which is precisely the convenience store model.
I don't buy much food at CVS, but the argument in the article in the OP about staple foods at reasonable prices also gave me pause.

[MichMan]

15. CVS also passes out 30% coupons like candy

Of course, they don't apply to anything on sale which is always everything I want to buy at the time.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

11. Walgreens announced in August 2019 that it was going to close 200 stores. Are these some of those?

[bedazzled]

12. Walgreens has a weird business model

they build a brand new store. Two years later they build a newly designed store a few blocks away, leaving the old one to rot. I never got it.