Posted on 07/21/2026 9:18:14 AM PDT by MtnClimber
California policymakers are dangerous not only to their neighbors but to the entire country because their ideas are often adopted by imitators in state houses and city halls. Plastic bag bans. Overbearing climate regulation. Draconian COVID rules. A crusade against condiment packets.
Almost added to that list is a punishment for retail chains that dare close their stores. One San Francisco city supervisor, Bilal Mahmood, had hoped to tax shuttered grocery stores and pharmacies, because, in his view, “no San Franciscan should be forced to choose between long walks, expensive rides, or going without basic necessities.”
Had Mahmood had his way, the fall San Francisco ballot would have included a pair of measures, the Abandoned Pharmacy and Grocery Tax Ordinance and the Affordable Grocery Fund. His aim is to address the city’s outbreak of “zombie stores.”
Mahmood, apparently inspired by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to open city-run grocers, and city bureaucrats planned to spend the new source of dollars on an affordable grocery fund that would convert corner stores into “full grocery stores that sell fresh produce” or hand out “grants that can help support worker co-ops or family-owned businesses.”
An additional possibility was to use the money to buy property and lease it to “affordable grocery stores.”
Mahmood pulled the idea over the weekend, which had polled well but didn’t have the support of wiser city officials.
That Mahmood would even consider a vacant store tax shows that, like so many other elected officials across the country, he’s oblivious to pertinent facts. The reality that grocers have to live with every day, that theirs is a competitive business with historical profit margins of about 1%, simply escapes him.
While grocers struggle, Mahmood rails about “both food inflation” and a “food crisis” that he is certain are afflicting San Francisco.
“Everyone deserves access to fresh food, prescription medications, and everyday essentials close to home,” said Mahmood, who promised his scheme would “help transform” the “empty stores blighting our commercial corridors back into healthy businesses supporting our neighborhood.”
Never mind that San Francisco is the fourth wealthiest city in the world and ranks behind only New York City in the number of billionaire residents — 58, according to Forbes — in the U.S. It’s not a city brimming with hordes that don’t have the resources to move around freely.
Nor is there a “food crisis” by the Bay — grocery purchases as a share of the median income in San Francisco are a mere 1.22%, far lower than in cities such as Detroit (3.78%), Cleveland (3.77%) and even Birmingham, Alabama (3.28%). “Strong household earnings make groceries feel lighter in California,” says the Visual Capitalist.
But it is a city that has allowed crime to become so pervasive that many retailers have chosen to close their San Francisco stores rather than keep them open for the convenience of criminals.
The city escaped a grave policy error. Had the proposal been approved by voters this fall, the message of hostility would have been clear to any grocery or pharmaceutical retailer that thought it might open or expand in San Francisco. It’s an incentive killer.
As currently constructed, California’s single-party political class seems often unable to learn, which means Mahmood’s idea could return at any time in any city. It would be foolish to think it won’t.
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Why doesn’t he propose taxing homeless people?
“Due to plastic bag restrictions in your area, you have been opted-in to bring your own bags”
? What a bunch of wankers. They even have this vaguely scolding ominous tone later, when you navigate to the “Yes, of course I want grocery bags for my groceries you stupid bastards” box.
“You have declined to bring your own grocery bags”
(They barely leave out the “… and are an evil, wicked person, I swear) LOL
Mahmood. How many Muslims in government does the USA now have?
Too many.
President Ronald Reagan
so if he had his way, a business is supposed to operate at a loss ,,and absorb all the shrinkage, and security costs, and other costs involved with operating in a bad area.
And if a business decides to opt out, then they will be punished with this tax.
I just don’t understand the mindset that would come up with such an idea. Well, even in liberal San Francisco, they’ve put this idea aside for now.
Mahmood forgets to mention crime.
A punitive tax intended to force a desired commercial property use that the owner would not have normally chosen has been found to be an unconstitutional 5th amendment taking in the past.
-PJ
Perhaps the grocery stores need to get together and request welfare like the farmers get. Maybe that’s the answer.
More proof that:
The only good communist is a dead communist...
It is our duty as citizens to help, with prejudice, everyone be as good as possible...
If we are unwilling to do our duty, maybe we should not complain...
Stop elected politicians promising Super Trains, spending billions over budget with no train to show for all the money wasted!
Well, nobody wants to mention crime as a reason why stores shut down in certain neighborhoods.
People who lecture us about food deserts , do not want us to delve deeply into why there are some neighborhoods that are food deserts.
Directive 10-289, Point Two.
“full grocery stores that sell fresh produce”
= = =
Better have mexican lettuce.
It would be interesting to see how that is supposed to work. Most/many of these retailers do not own the property. They lease it. So when their lease is up they can leave. So who is the city going to tax? None of these nimrods think any of this crap through
>“Everyone deserves access to fresh food, prescription medications, and everyday essentials close to home,” said Mahmood,
I deserve a free pony.
Where’s my pony, Mahmood?
Get to work on that.
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