Walgreens has closed 22 stores in the city, where thefts under $950 are effectively decriminalized.


The connection between crime control and social inequality doesn’t get a lot of attention in the media, but last week’s decision by pharmacy chain Walgreens to close five more stores in San Francisco because of rampant shoplifting is another reason why it should.

The recent closings bring to 22 the number of stores that Walgreens has shut in the city since 2016. “Theft in Walgreens’ San Francisco stores is four times the average for stores elsewhere in the country, and the chain spends 35 times more on security guards in the city than elsewhere,” reported the San Francisco Chronicle. Local lawmakers have said that Walgreens is too preoccupied with boosting profits, that theft isn’t that bad, and that the chain should just suck up the losses.



That argument might have more credibility if Walgreens was alone in airing concerns about shoplifting, but other large retailers have had similar problems. Earlier this year, a spokesman for CVS, which has closed at least two stores, told CNN that of its 155 locations in the Bay Area, the 12 in San Francisco account for 26% of all shoplifting incidents in the region.

Much of this lawlessness can be linked to Proposition 47, a California ballot initiative passed in 2014, under which theft of less than $950 in goods is treated as a nonviolent misdemeanor and rarely prosecuted. Out of concern for safety and potential lawsuits, stores tell employees and security guards not to intervene when they witness a crime. Most suspects, if they are pursued at all by police, are soon released. Californians effectively decriminalized shoplifting. Not surprisingly, they have more of it.



Still, California isn’t the only place where retail theft has been creating larger-than-usual headaches for proprietors. A National Retail Federation survey, released in December, revealed that the average cost of crime to retail operators—costs that are invariably passed on to consumers—rose for the fifth year in a row and was up close to 60% since 2015. Meanwhile, politically progressive local prosecutors from Los Angeles to Philadelphia and New York compete to see who can prosecute the fewest people.



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These trends don’t affect all groups and all communities in the same way. Target has closed stores in predominantly black sections of Chicago, Milwaukee and Flint, Mich. in recent years in the wake of not only increased store thefts but also rioting, looting and violent antipolice protests. If you are middle class and the nearest big-box store closes, you simply drive to a different one or its equivalent. But if you are a poor single mom without a car, your options are limited. You’ve just lost access, perhaps, to the closest, cheapest and widest variety of fresh produce, medicines and other goods. The alternatives are more-expensive convenience stores and less-healthy processed food for your family.

Moreover, when these large retailers leave a community, so do lots of jobs. In June, the New York Times profiled a Target in a mostly black Baltimore community that opened its doors in 2008. It “recruited heavily from the neighborhood,” hiring people who had never been steadily employed. “When Mike Johnson applied for a job, he was ‘down on his luck,’ having run out of tuition money to stay at Coppin State University, a historically black college,” the paper wrote. “At 19, he got a position stocking shelves overnight and worked his way up to earning $16.50 as a supervisor. It was the first time he had worked somewhere with Black people in leadership roles.” Nevertheless, the mall where the Target was located was looted during antipolice protests in 2015, and the store reportedly struggled for years with high rates of theft. It closed in 2018.

Like the local leaders in San Francisco, Baltimore officials blamed the retailers for leaving instead of the thieves for driving them away. But indulging criminal behavior in the name of “social justice” only helps criminals, who are not representative of all blacks. Public policies that give priority to the interests of lawbreakers only lead to more lawbreaking, and by extension to more economic inequality. Businesses have every incentive to flee these communities and the jobs follow them.

Tempting though it may be to blame the social dysfunction in poorer communities on heartless business owners or racists cops, the bigger blame surely lies with public policies that condone counterproductive behavior and make successful businesses much more difficult to operate. The fallout from antipolice protests in recent years has been all too predictable, as has the left’s response to it. Large employers quit urban areas after the riots of the 1960s as well, and some of those communities still haven’t fully recovered. Until the rule of law is restored and enforced, they probably never will.



link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/s..._opin_pos_2#cxrecs_s

Are there any stores there that carry ammo? Asking for a friend.

There was a time when we spent every Christmas vacation in San Fran. In-laws are in Sac area, so it made sense.

We stopped this tradition 7 years ago because it was becoming too much of a shithole for us. Even in the nice areas along the waterfront that we once loved were becoming awful.

I do miss going to Ghirardelli Square for good sea-food and Hot Chocolate.

But as they say, you can't go home again.

Even Stevie Wonder saw that coming.

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I do miss going to Ghirardelli Square for good sea-food and Hot Chocolate.

Or the Buena Vista for an Irish Coffee...

Link

Recently, I saw a discussion of Walgreen’s, San Francisco, and store closings. It revealed that the shoplifting some time ago transitioned from individual theft to organized crime theft rings. It showed a warehouse-type building stocked with stolen items that were then marketed on sites like Ebay. It’s big business and the Dem ruling class refuses to recognize that it’s not about serving a community and absorbing losses, it’s about withstanding organized crime, given free rein, and unsustainable losses in the face of criminally irresponsible governing.

When I flew in to San Francisco to interview for my new job, I found that my bag had been lost. This particularly pissed me off because it was a carry on bag that I was made to check at the gate, despite the fact that it was within the allotted cary on size. Anyhow, the point is that I needed to pick up some socks and undergarments to wear the next day to my interview, so I stopped by a Walmart on the way to the hotel. I was amazed to find that the socks and underwear were all locked up behind glass, much the same as ammunition is locked up in Walmarts around where I live. When I got an associate to unlock the doors so that I could make my purchase (she escorted me to the cashier by the way) I asked what the reasons were behind locking these items up. She explained that it was the only way that they could keep people from literally picking these items off the shelf and walking out of the store with them without consequence. I honestly and legitimately fear for our future.

I would imagine most everyone who has the capability of leaving has already done so. That leaves just the saints and sinners. What a god awful shitty mess.

Eventually it will all crash. Maybe Cali will send in the Nat'l Guard, but probably not.

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San Francisco Has Become a Shoplifter’s Paradise

... until it's picked over and nothing is left.
Then it's a paradise for no one.

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Walgreens has closed 22 stores in the city, where thefts under $950 are effectively decriminalized.

... and soon they will be complaining that it's a 'food desert' and that the government must 'do something'.

I used to love to go to SanFran for conventions. I always had a great time, and ate some good food. I have not been back in many years now, and have no plans to go there.

As a native and long time resident of S.F., I will no longer service most areas of S.F.

Only the Avenues and outer Richmond, because 1.) They have not yet gone full potato. 2.) I can get there without a Byzantine routing of traffic and actually make the 15 minute run in 15 minutes instead of 45 minutes to an hour for the same distance.

Add to this, prop 47. My car gets burglarized, I'm out of business.

Further, so many customers in the City are outright karens. Socialist, harsh, difficult.

I haven't touched on parking - or lack thereof. Customers think parking several blocks away in a sketchy area (lots of them these days) and humping a 60# tool kit is no big deal. It is. Add to this, sometimes I need parts in the car additionally to what I brought in. Not fond of leaving 3K worth of tools in a stranger's house unattended.

Unfortunately, my company's main office is near Oakland. I have to travel there fairly often.

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Socialist, harsh, difficult.

I never quite understood how women like that tended to be the people who were hardest on those who work for a living. Maybe they're their own reason for believe that the working class is oppressed?

Took my daughter there a few years ago to see a concert. At the water front wasn't too bad aside from the insane guy rolling along in his wheelchair screaming and beating his head with his hands! Only saw one pile of human shit on the pavement. Oddly enough I found many of the people that lived there to be quite nice. How they tolerate the crap their government does is beyond me though!

I jokingly ask my wife what she stole and offer to compare our loot after every shopping trip.

I worked in the SF financial district before the lockdown ended my job. There was a Walgreens a block from work. On one visit the small woman behind the counter started yelling at a tweaker who walked in about how he came in every day and stole every day. Between organized theft rings, reparations, and the beggars stealing there's no way to actually run a store in SF.

SF is the worst but the entire urban Bay Area is afflicted with this. The local crime log is a parade of shoplifters at Walgreens, CVS, Ross, and Marshall's. The majority of them cited and released. They can cram up to $950 into a bag and flee. If they're caught it's a infraction. That's it. The kids show up in groups.

I was parked outside CVS on Sunday and watched a gutter punk tweaker walk out with a bulging bag. An employee followed about 10 seconds after followed quickly by the police showing up. A few minutes later the police returned with the bag of loot. There was no tweaker in the backseat.

The Alameda county DA has a revolving door. Hep opponent last election and probably the front runner for the next election has stated she won't even prosecute misdos. CA is getting exactly what CA votes for. We deserve it.

San Francisco and Oakland residents have been complaining for years about the lack of grocery stores in local neighborhoods. The stores have all packed up and left. And the City blames the money hungry corporations.

I feel bad for any non veg-head that lives there. No sympathy for assclowns that voted for unpunished thievery and sidewalk shit piles.

I wouldn't have even grabbed the bag. Have fun Fricso.

I've witnessed this crap here.
Along with not pulling people over for running red lights and such.

The local store I go to used to have a few "hair products" under lock and key due to shoplifting.
But in the end it was declared raciest, due to those were the only products that were locked up and only a very few used them.
So now to be fair it's all locked up, need some Nuetragena soap? Someone has to unlock it and take it up front for you.
Never mind the fact that my cart has $300+ of stuff that I haven't paid for yet, it's a ploy to skip out on some soap.