Walgreens closing 5 more San Francisco stores Due to Increasing Retail Theft

Walgreens announced Tuesday that it will close five more locations in San Francisco next month due to organised retail crime, adding to the city's embarrassment over widespread and blatant thievery. According to SFGATE, the businesses will close next month. Since the beginning of 2019, Walgreens has closed at least ten stores in the city, according to the report.

Despite increased security, “Retail theft across our San Francisco stores has continued to increase in the past few months to five times our chain average" according to Walgreens spokesperson Phil Caruso.

Supervisor Ahsha Safai expressed his sadness over the closure of a Mission Street store that he described as "a staple for elderly, families, and children for decades."

Safai told SFGATE,“This is a sad day for San Francisco,” Safai told SFGATE. “We can’t continue to let these anchor institutions close that so many people rely on.”

Last year, Walgreens shut down a store where it said it was losing $1,000 per day due to thefts.

The widespread distribution of photographs of shoplifting recorded on video has stoked frustration and worry over thefts. Shoplifters in masks rushed from a downtown Neiman Marcus department store carrying armfuls of luxury items and into getaway automobiles this summer.

A masked man was seen on video shoving products into a garbage bag at a Walgreens in June before speeding out of the store on a bicycle. In that theft, a suspect was apprehended.

Mayor London Breed and Police Chief Bill Scott stated last month that more cops will be assigned, coordination will be improved, and it will be easier to report shoplifters.

The approach tries to combat thievery, which has contributed to the liberal city's reputation as a crime-free zone.

"We care about criminal justice reform. We care about second chances. We care about making sure that people are not wrongly accused,” Breed in announcing the new measures. “But don’t take our kindness for weakness, our compassion for weakness.”

Walgreens has announced that the following San Francisco sites would close next month: 2550 Ocean Ave., 4645 Mission St., 745 Clement St., 300 Gough St., and 3400 Cesar Chavez St.

When San Francisco supervisor Ahsha Safai heard the news, she said the closures would have a significant impact on children, families, and elders who rely on Walgreens pharmacies for their prescription prescriptions.

"This news has utterly upset me." This shutdown will have a tremendous impact on this neighbourhood. He claimed the Mission Street Walgreens is "less than a mile from seven schools and has been a staple for families and children for decades." "To decrease and deter the number of occurrences of commercial retail theft, the city needs to act quickly."

“I need it to stay open, because now and then, I need me some Tums for heartburn, and this stays open and it’s right and its quick,” Shawda Carol of San Francisco said of the Cesar Chavez location. “They got a pharmacy up in there – I really love that.”

“Even in the location in my district on Mission and Ocean, couple months ago they started to put an officer there and it made a dramatic difference,” said Supervisor Safai.

However, because the store is closing, Safai believes it is too little, too late. He recently suggested legislation allowing sheriff's deputies to work as business security guards. Customers shared their thoughts on why the situation is so severe in San Francisco.

"I believe there has been a culture of forbearance, a laissez-faire mentality," Elena Norberg-Brown remarked. "For the past year, I've been sounding the alarm on this issue. "At long last, we've attracted everyone's attention."

In addition to the proposed law, Safai has formed a Commercial Retail Theft Working Group, which will provide policy recommendations and comprises Police Chief Bill Scott and District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

Last month, Scott and Mayor London Breed also unveiled a slew of new programmes aimed at combating retail theft, including expanding the Police Department's Organized Retail Crime Unit and hiring more retired cops to monitor neighbourhoods.

Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled an aggressive enforcement plan in July in response to a shocking increase in brazen retail robberies by organised gangs.

With the five Walgreens shops closing next month, Walgreens said that prescriptions will be immediately transferred to another nearby Walgreens outlet within a mile radius, and patients will receive a notice in the mail. Employees at the closed stores will be relocated to other neighbouring locations, according to the firm.