Posted on 10/19/2020 7:53:14 AM PDT by RightGeek
After months of seeing its shelves repeatedly cleaned out by brazen shoplifters, the Walgreens at Van Ness and Eddy in San Francisco is getting ready to close.
“The last day is Nov. 11,” Walgreens spokesman Phil Caruso said.
The drugstore, which serves many older people who live in the Opera Plaza area, is the seventh Walgreens to close in the city since 2019.
“All of us knew it was coming. Whenever we go in there, they always have problems with shoplifters, ” said longtime customer Sebastian Luke, who lives a block away and is a frequent customer who has been posting photos of the thefts for months. The other day, Luke photographed a man casually clearing a couple of shelves and placing the goods into a backpack.
“I feel sorry for the clerks, they are regularly being verbally assaulted,” Luke said. “The clerks say there is nothing they can do. They say Walgreens’ policy is to not get involved. They don’t want anyone getting injured or getting sued, so the guys just keep coming in and taking whatever they want.”
...
When a clerk was asked where all the goods had gone, he said, “Go ask the people in the alleys, they have it all.”
Homeless encampments are common in the neighborhood, including two just across Eddy Street.
No sooner had the clerk spoken than a man wearing a virus mask walked in, emptied two shelves of snacks into a bag, then headed back for the door.
As he walked past the checkout line, a customer called out, “Sure you don’t want a drink with that?”
...
Under California law, theft of less than $950 in goods is treated as a nonviolent misdemeanor.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfchronicle.com ...
Set up properly, there wouldn’t be. But yeah, they’d complain about how it’s ‘dehumanizing,’ etc.
The best bet is substantial store redesign, which in this case would not be too terribly expensive.
For this type of store, they should make a store website, so that customers can *virtually* visit their store, then put the items they want in their website shopping cart. When they are done, they pay in advance, then visit an “airlock” room to pick up the merchandise they have purchased. No face to face, or customer being alone with unpurchased inventory.
“delivered using a new Amazon flying drone”
Drones be netted or shot down in da ‘hood.
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