Posted on 10/18/2021 12:10:48 PM PDT by Vendome
Walgreens announced Tuesday it would be closing five of its San Francisco locations due to "organized retail crime," but police department data, local officials, and policy experts are casting doubt on that reasoning, according to a report published by the San Francisco Chronicle on Saturday.
While the report said the chain has experienced retail theft, other factors like the COVID-19 pandemic and oversaturation of stores were cited as potential factors behind the decision to close the stores.
However, San Francisco Police Department data obtained by the Chronicle contradicts Walgreens' claims, with one of the stores slated to close reporting only 23 shoplifting incidents since 2018. Some incidents of shoplifting likely go unreported, but the closing stores had on average less than two shoplifting reports per month since 2018.
"Organized retail crime continues to be a challenge facing retailers across San Francisco, and we are not immune to that," Caruso told SFGate. "During this time to help combat this issue, we increased our investments in security measures in stores across the city to 46 times our chain average in an effort to provide a safe environment."
San Francisco Mayor London Breed pushed back against Walgreens' stated reasoning for closing the stores.
"They are saying (shoplifting is) the primary reason, but I also think when a place is not generating revenue, and when they're saturated - SF has a lot of Walgreens locations all over the city - so I do think that there are other factors that come into play," she told reporters last week.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
the police department does not accept reports of thefts under $950
Actually, Walgreens should be able to close whatever stores they want. They owe an explanation to no one.
But I agree with everyone, above. If they can’t report items stolen under $950, that explains the lack shoplifting that has been reported.
Well if the city is sooooo concerned. Let them open a store, they can subsidize it and lower costs by raising taxes on the evil rich.
Wait, don’t give the city any ideas… sarc/
Who cares the reason, a comp can do what it wants including FORCING YOU to get a unproven substance jabbed into your body!
Growing up in Queens, as the neighborhood changed, our local grocery store was robbed every Friday around 3:00 PM. The 113 Precinct stationed a patrol car across the street till about 3:30. Fifteen minutes after they left, the place was robbed. The cops told the Italian-American family who owned it to get a gun. They didn’t want to. They hired an ancient black Spanish-American war veteran as an armed security guard. The local yutes taunted him. He discharged his firearm into the parking lot, the ricochette hitting one of the yutes in the ankle.
They gave up and sold the place to a family of Lebanese immigrants. The Lebanese are big believers in the IInd Amendment. When we had the blackout in 1977, they turned out in lawnchairs with long rifles, and looting passed them by. On one occasion, one of da buthras was trying to socialize with one of the female cashiers. Her cousin at the next register asked him to desist. When he told the cousin to chill, the cousin produced a 9mm from under the counter and da brutha left as fast as he could walk on his tremblin’ knees.
They were never robbed.
It can only be because Walgreens is RACISSSS!
Exactly
I thought you were always supposed to believe the victim.
I’ve got an analogy for whomever might be interested:
“No, the hookers aren’t leaving the area because they’re being assaulted; they’re leaving because there are too many of them and they aren’t making enough money because of the saturation.”
If you know the police are going to do nothing about the shoplifting then why bother calling them?
MOST Walgreens close to me here in L.A. were robbed or broken into more than few times since last year. A majority of them are STILL boarded up but open.
Right. The Media are a bunch of woke, statist turds. Nothing they say can be trusted.
Nothing.
You are forced as a citizen to unpack everything they say, and a Clintonesque ritual, decipher what the meaning of the word “is” is.
For the Leftists in and out of the media, they cynically leverage this, knowing full well people will see the headline and think “Okay, so the racist Walgreens is lying about why they are closing certain locations...”
“experts cast doubt on that explanation”
I’m sure these so-called “experts” have never been to these stores.
Walgreens can’t tell the difference between a Flu shot and a COVID shot
If it is in an underserved minority area, they will be charged with racism and civil rights violation.
Just watch.
[ Only 23 incidents reported. Since the police now do nothing with these reports, the stores do not bother to report them. I guess to liberals, if a crime is not reported to police, it never happened. ]
The liberals are already masters of selective enforcement...
This is simply “Selective acknowledgement”
Maybe so, but they know way more about how stores operate than the people who own the stores do. Just ask them.
If one item worth $1 was stolen or not it’s Walgreen’s decision to make.
The city needs to sue Walgreens to make them stay there to keep enriching crack whores, street poopers, and escalator/elevator urinators.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.