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Walgreens closing 5 San Francisco stores due to 'organized retail crime'

sfgate.com

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Re: Walgreens closing 5 San Francisco stores due to 'organized retail crime'

#71

Post by atatatat »

gruez wrote: post #46
throwaway3776 wrote: post #39

Throwaway, but I can assure you as an SF resident, most of us are more than happy to see Walgreens go. They pay and treat their employees terribly along with pushing junk food and other garbage to people just trying to fill a prescription. We are excited for quality, owner operated pharmacies to return and replace them. Just like they served us before Walgreens came in and muscled them all out of business. It’s almos…

>We are excited for quality, owner operated pharmacies to return and replace them. Just like they served us before Walgreens came in and muscled them all out of business. What makes you think that the owner operated pharmacies won't be targeted by shoplifters? Are a significant chunk of the shoplifters doing it for ideological reasons? >It’s almost as if not looking out for your community results in that community no…

> What makes you think that the owner operated pharmacies won't be targeted by shoplifters?

Footage from the LA Riots.

Re: Walgreens closing 5 San Francisco stores due to 'organized retail crime'

#72

Post by hindsightbias »

cmelbye wrote: post #34
dragonwriter wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

San Francisco never defunded the police. (IIRC, voters passed a measure eliminating a mininum funding mandate, but the actual budget has increased.) The SFPD may choose not to enforce laws, but I don't think anyone outside of SFPD directed that, it's just organized nonfeasance as leadership political protest.

SFPD was facing a shortage of new recruits this summer: https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/06/24/san-francisco-g... The political and social climate in SF has led to a situation where the number of officers on the street can shrink even if the budget stays flat or grows.

Applicants, not recruits. Apples and oranges. Urban PDs have been moaning about being understaffed while kneecapping actually graduating more because they are gorging on overtime. Same with public works. Remember the HN outrage with the Muni worker making $400K? They have all their cake and eat it too.

An 800K San Franciscans have been clammering for community policing for decades but it never happens. Because PDs don’t want that.

This has been the state forever: http://sfappeal.com/2012/04/understaffed-sfpd-is-nonetheless...

Re: Walgreens closing 5 San Francisco stores due to 'organized retail crime'

#73

Post by new_realist »

atatatat wrote: post #71
gruez wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We are excited for quality, owner operated pharmacies to return and replace them. Just like they served us before Walgreens came in and muscled them all out of business. What makes you think that the owner operated pharmacies won't be targeted by shoplifters? Are a significant chunk of the shoplifters doing it for ideological reasons? >It’s almost as if not looking out for your community results in that community no…

> What makes you think that the owner operated pharmacies won't be targeted by shoplifters? Footage from the LA Riots.

That was 30 years ago in another city. The rioters are 50 years old now.

Re: Walgreens closing 5 San Francisco stores due to 'organized retail crime'

#74

Post by jollybean »

throwaway3776 wrote: post #39

Throwaway, but I can assure you as an SF resident, most of us are more than happy to see Walgreens go. They pay and treat their employees terribly along with pushing junk food and other garbage to people just trying to fill a prescription. We are excited for quality, owner operated pharmacies to return and replace them. Just like they served us before Walgreens came in and muscled them all out of business. It’s almos…

I feel this is a naive assessment.

Walgreens is not 'pushing' anything on anyone - people make choices to buy Doritos.

More importantly -> they're going there for the Doritos as much as anything else.

Walgreens has incredible economies of scale and operational expertise. They know what people want, they know how to keep the shelves stocked efficiently, which is not exactly novel, but it's hard for mom and pop shops to do.

If SF residents truly wanted 'independent pharmacies' for prescriptions, they would have been using them already.

As far as 'employee treatment' - maybe there is something there, but I'm doubtful if it rises to the threshold that we'd want them closed.

'The Problem' is entirely San Francisco's insane attitudes towards crime.

And finally, most poignantly, those criminals will steal from the 'locally owned stores' just as well, and they won't have 500 other locations to absorb the losses.

This is an SF civic problem.

Get SF to act rationally - and then - maybe it's possible to have a discussion about 'locally owned' shops etc..

Re: Walgreens closing 5 San Francisco stores due to 'organized retail crime'

#75

Post by pas »

speedybird wrote: post #30
Veliladon wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SF went from $668 million in 19/20 to $661 million in 20/21 for the SFPD, mainly due to police not being required as much at SFO. If the police can't stop crime and enforce the laws of 47 square miles and 874,961 residents for the princely sum of $755 per person/year or $14 million per square mile/year what exactly are people paying for? Like if I told you that you pay $62/mo for a police subscription and this was th…

Police aren't good for much if you don't have a competent prosecutor who sees fit to prosecute criminals. Catch-and-release policing is a waste of everybody's time. And when the police misbehave, who is it that frequently neglects to prosecute them? The prosecutors, again. Who elects shitty prosecutors? Who elects shitty sheriffs? Who elect city councils and mayors who nominate shitty police chiefs? All fingers point…

> Catch-and-release policing is a waste of everybody's time.

No, it's not. Putting away repeat offenders requires to know who are they. It helps victims to have a report they can use for insurance claims, etc.

Re: Walgreens closing 5 San Francisco stores due to 'organized retail crime'

#76

Post by readflaggedcomm »

pas wrote: post #75
speedybird wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Police aren't good for much if you don't have a competent prosecutor who sees fit to prosecute criminals. Catch-and-release policing is a waste of everybody's time. And when the police misbehave, who is it that frequently neglects to prosecute them? The prosecutors, again. Who elects shitty prosecutors? Who elects shitty sheriffs? Who elect city councils and mayors who nominate shitty police chiefs? All fingers point…

> Catch-and-release policing is a waste of everybody's time. No, it's not. Putting away repeat offenders requires to know who are they. It helps victims to have a report they can use for insurance claims, etc.

You can only confirm they've offended after examining the evidence, which the DA refuses to do. Arrest isn't proof.

Re: Walgreens closing 5 San Francisco stores due to 'organized retail crime'

#77

Post by Redoubts »

woodruffw wrote: post #48
gruez wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>you can write a great breathless article about him, but there's still only one of him. Right, but even if 46 arrests in a year isn't representative of the median shoplifter, it's still an appalling example. Why is the justice system so ineffective that a shoplifter is allowed to be arrested 46 times in a year? You'd think by the 4th or 5th one he'd be denied bail.

> You'd think by the 4th or 5th one he'd be denied bail. I don't think the article says, but I suspect that he probably hasn't had a bail hearing related to these arrests this year. The court system is badly backlogged, and the alternative would be indefinite detention (here is where I'd expect the civil libertarians to come marching in, but there's always curious silence when it's someone like this).

> here is where I'd expect the civil libertarians to come marching in, but there's always curious silence when it's someone like this

Have you considered mentioning age of consent?

Re: Walgreens closing 5 San Francisco stores due to 'organized retail crime'

#78

Post by gruez »

atatatat wrote: post #71
gruez wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We are excited for quality, owner operated pharmacies to return and replace them. Just like they served us before Walgreens came in and muscled them all out of business. What makes you think that the owner operated pharmacies won't be targeted by shoplifters? Are a significant chunk of the shoplifters doing it for ideological reasons? >It’s almost as if not looking out for your community results in that community no…

> What makes you think that the owner operated pharmacies won't be targeted by shoplifters? Footage from the LA Riots.

You mean the one where korean store owners had to defend their businesses by shooting from the rooftops? That seems like an obvious case of owner operated businesses were still targeted.

Re: Walgreens closing 5 San Francisco stores due to 'organized retail crime'

#79

Post by ziml77 »

throwaway3776 wrote: post #39

Throwaway, but I can assure you as an SF resident, most of us are more than happy to see Walgreens go. They pay and treat their employees terribly along with pushing junk food and other garbage to people just trying to fill a prescription. We are excited for quality, owner operated pharmacies to return and replace them. Just like they served us before Walgreens came in and muscled them all out of business. It’s almos…

I've been to multiple Walgreens and none of them have pushed junk food on anyone. In fact, the most direct path from the entrance to the pharmacy hasn't even contained the food. That's always been on the opposite side of the store.
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