Walgreens cited shoplifting as rationale for closing 5 stores in San Francisco, but..

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

We started out talking Walgreen's here. If an employee slips a tube of toothpaste or shampoo in his or her pocket on the way home, it's not an significant economic loss. If some guy walks in off the street and fills several large shopping bags with every tube of toothpaste on the shelf, it is. That's the difference. For a while--it's gotten better because now they lock everything up behind plexiglass barriers--shelves in San Franciso drug stores like Walgreens were literally empty.

We are not in disagreement.

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by Obadno

Actually no and the "facts" disagree with your perception of who is leaving California.

Haha the irony in this is hilarious^ because you never present facts, just what you claim people told you.

Here, are facts:

Only 4,000 out of 115,000 household and business address changes during the pandemic are out-of-state, that's 3.7%----1.0% moved to Washington State, and 0.6% moved to Texas.





% of movers who relocated out-of-state
6% San Francisco
5% Santa Clara
2% Alameda
2% Contra Costa
1% Marin
1% San Mateo

% of movers who relocated elsewhere in CA
37% Santa Clara
24% Alameda
19% Contra Costa
13% San Francisco
7% Marin
7% San Mateo

% of movers who relocate within the 9-county Bay Area
92% San Mateo
91% Marin
81% San Francisco
79% Contra Costa
74% Alameda
58% Santa Clara

The biggest county-to-county shift during this pandemic has not been from San Francisco to some out-of-state location but from Santa Clara to Sacramento and the Central Valley. That far outstrips any migration to Seattle or Austin or anywhere else, and that further perpetuates the connection between the Bay Area and it's outlying areas, which means the CSA is going to get bigger.

In fact, many people who left in the wave of recent media hype want to move back...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/t...area-back.html

I dont blame them. Plenty of places are cheaper, but 'better' overall? As. If.

[twinpeaks]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

Haha the irony in this is hilarious^ because you never present facts, just what you claim people told you.

Here, are facts:

Only 4,000 out of 115,000 household and business address changes during the pandemic are out-of-state, that's 3.7%----1.0% moved to Washington State, and 0.6% moved to Texas.





% of movers who relocated out-of-state
6% San Francisco
5% Santa Clara
2% Alameda
2% Contra Costa
1% Marin
1% San Mateo

% of movers who relocated elsewhere in CA
37% Santa Clara
24% Alameda
19% Contra Costa
13% San Francisco
7% Marin
7% San Mateo

% of movers who relocate within the 9-county Bay Area
92% San Mateo
91% Marin
81% San Francisco
79% Contra Costa
74% Alameda
58% Santa Clara

The biggest county-to-county shift during this pandemic has not been from San Francisco to some out-of-state location but from Santa Clara to Sacramento and the Central Valley. That far outstrips any migration to Seattle or Austin or anywhere else, and that further perpetuates the connection between the Bay Area and it's outlying areas, which means the CSA is going to get bigger.

In fact, many people who left in the wave of recent media hype want to move back...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/t...area-back.html

I dont blame them. Plenty of places are cheaper, but 'better' overall? As. If.

Thanks for the facts. Unfortunately, some people has easier time believing hearsay than facts.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

Haha the irony in this is hilarious^ because you never present facts, just what you claim people told you.

Here, are facts:

I dont blame them. Plenty of places are cheaper, but 'better' overall? As. If.

The conversation were about white middle aged republican men being the primary people leaving. This whole quote, while interesting is irrelevant.

Do you normally get your points so mixed? Is the California state gov paying you to calm down the anti California attitudes online?

[Cory]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

Haha the irony in this is hilarious^ because you never present facts, just what you claim people told you.

Here, are facts:

This has absolutely nothing to do with what you quoted.

Edit: post above beat me to it

[dktshb]

Whatever the reason why Walgreens is closing these stores really is irrelevant. They can do what they want. This kind of lawlessness whether the real reason or not is really annoying. I guess there is just a lot of crummy crappy people out there. I do not know the solution, but this issue is not unique to SF. I don't like that these types of crimes are a slap on the wrist but also know there is not the infrastructure to lock everybody up for these types of crimes. I love the City but the homelessness and allowing for these encampments and the turning a blind eye to all the petty crime really does wear on me. It is all very frustrating.

Of course right wing media is going to run with the story as if this is more proof that SF is in the midst of an apocalypse, which apparently is as titillating as porn to their audience. I was in Phoenix for one day and saw plenty of homeless people and trash. I saw a homeless person crap in broad daylight on camelback and central. There are homeless people breaking into the parking garage of the commercial building my partner owns to sleep and shoot drugs so we have had to hire security guards to keep them out. You ask any of our tenants there and they say the same shit about how awful things are there too. It is turning into a national problem and is not unique to SF and Los Angeles like some want so much want to believe.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I knew this somehow didn't jibe with me... Corporations dictate the narrative after all, especially in the US.

Walgreens is everywhere in San Francisco. If a few of them are closing, it's because there are too many of them.

From Yahoo! News/Business Insider:

Walgreens cited shoplifting as rationale for closing 5 stores in San Francisco, but local officials, data, and experts cast doubt on that explanation

Morgan Keith
Sun, October 17, 2021, 5:09 PM | 3 min read

-Walgreens said it's closing some San Francisco stores because of an increase in retail theft.

-Police data obtained by the Chronicle did not show high rates of shoplifting reports at the closing stores.

-One expert said people moving out of the city during the pandemic could've hurt Walgreens' business.

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.

Walgreens spokesperson Phil Caruso said retail theft across its San Francisco locations has increased in the past few months to five times the chain's average, SFGate reported.

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.

Dean Preston, supervisor of San Francisco's 5th district, which will be impacted by a store closure, said the pharmacy chain is "abandoning the community" and has "long planned to close stores," the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

"Odd that some are so offended that I would suggest that a massive corporate chain might be closing retail locations for the exact reason they told investors they would close locations, rather than the reasons stated in their external PR," Preston said in a tweet on Friday.

In a 2019 Security and Exchange Commission filing, Walgreens announced it would launch a "Transformational Cost Management Program" that would shutter 200 stores in the US in order to save $1.5 billion in annual expenses by 2022.

A May study published by Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom found 15% of residents left San Francisco during the pandemic and have not returned, which he told the Chronicle could explain Walgreens' waning customer base in the city.

San Francisco does have relatively high rates of property crime, which criminal justice researcher Magnus Lofstrom told the Chronicle could be due in part to the Bay Area's vast income equality.

Walgreens did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Link: https://news.yahoo.com/walgreens-cit...000957839.html

keep pretending the lawlessness in your cities don't have consequences.

[Pedestrian]

Yes, property crime really is out of control in SF and now even a "progressive" DA is pointing the finger at her former boss as responsible:

Why a progressive prosecutor just left D.A. Chesa Boudin's office and joined the recall effort
Heather Knight
Oct. 24, 2021
Updated: Oct. 24, 2021 8:51 a.m.

Sitting on a bench in Golden Gate Park on a recent afternoon, Brooke Jenkins made clear the city’s raging debate over crime and how District Attorney Chesa Boudin responds to it is more complicated than left versus right.

Jenkins, a former homicide prosecutor, just quit. Her last day was Oct. 15. She’s now one of about 50 attorneys — roughly a third of the office — to leave since January 2020, when Boudin took charge.

But Jenkins’ decision to speak out about what she views as chaotic management, high turnover and ideologically driven decisions at the D.A.’s office sets her apart in the normally tight-lipped criminal justice community. And so does her new role: volunteering for the campaign to recall her former boss.

Jenkins, 40, is Black and Latina and — like Boudin — describes herself as a progressive prosecutor who has long sought alternatives to incarceration. She told me she agrees with the central tenet of Boudin’s campaign: that the criminal justice system is racist and needs reform.

But she disagrees with what she sees as Boudin prioritizing ideology and politics over the day-to-day handling of cases, which she said has yielded an unorganized office, plummeting morale and bad outcomes for victims and their families.

It’s important to note that this is personal for Jenkins. One of those families was her husband’s — devastated by the slaying last year of his 18-year-old cousin and what the family views as an ineffective prosecution of his alleged killers.

“The D.A.’s office now is a sinking ship,” she said. “It’s like the Titanic, and it’s taking public safety along with it.”

Since taking office 21 months ago, Boudin has become one of the most polarizing public figures in San Francisco — so much so that a recall of him is likely to qualify for the ballot after the campaign filed 83,487 signatures Friday, 32,000 more than needed . . . .

Supporters of Boudin say the turnover simply reflects growing pains and that reforming a broken criminal justice system is bound to upset some career prosecutors.

Whichever way you lean, people like Jenkins are worth paying attention to. As the most powerful law enforcement officials in San Francisco, Boudin warrants scrutiny — and the way he runs his office day to day, manages people and handles criminal cases couldn’t be more germane to evaluating his job performance.

Jenkins and the two other prosecutors are just a sliver of the departures that include firings, retirements and resignations, though it’s impossible to know all the reasons employees left. Last week alone, Lisa Ortiz and Edgar Zamudio, both in Victims Services, Sarah Orrick, a prosecutor in the domestic violence unit, and Maia Maszara, the lead human trafficking prosecutor, announced their resignations.

Other top prosecutors who’ve left include Julia Cervantes, a manager in the general felonies division; Lili Nguyen, a homicide prosecutor; and Kathleen McBride, a sexual assault prosecutor. Diane Knoles, the head of the homicide unit, resigned last year to work for the Napa County District Attorney’s Office.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/bayar...o-16556274.php

As San Franciscans know, DA Boudin is the son of two convicted murderers, raised by an unindicted co-conspirator, Bill Ayers, who himself got a lot of media attention because of Barack Obama's association with him in Chicago. He is one among a wave of radical/progressive prosecutors elected in cities around the country from LA to Philadelphia, in many cases with financial help from George Soros. Essentially, he is more concerned with the rights of perpetrators than of victims.

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by Obadno

The conversation were about white middle aged republican men being the primary people leaving. This whole quote, while interesting is irrelevant.

No, that comment was specifically about the circles you probably run in, because nobody else moving cares about the political tribalism you seem to think is all that matters. Normal people move for cheaper housing, overwhelmingly.

And now you know for with surety that out of 115,000 address changes that originated in the Bay Area, only 4,000 were to locations out-of-state.

That must be painful for you accept considering what the right wing echo chamber has been feeding you for years.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

Yes, property crime really is out of control in SF and now even a "progressive" DA is pointing the finger at her former boss as responsible:


https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/bayar...o-16556274.php

As San Franciscans know, DA Boudin is the son of two convicted murderers, raised by an unindicted co-conspirator, Bill Ayers, who himself got a lot of media attention because of Barack Obama's association with him in Chicago. He is one among a wave of radical/progressive prosecutors elected in cities around the country from LA to Philadelphia, in many cases with financial help from George Soros. Essentially, he is more concerned with the rights of perpetrators than of victims.

Sounds like gascon 2.0 but worse. These retards need to be sent to Mars so we can get back to punishing criminals

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

Sounds like gascon 2.0 but worse. These retards need to be sent to Mars so we can get back to punishing criminals

As you may recall, we sent Gascon to you. He was DA in San Francisco for a number of years and Boudin replaced him. Boudin is worse.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

As you may recall, we sent Gascon to you. He was DA in San Francisco for a number of years and Boudin replaced him. Boudin is worse.

Unfortunately, the general populace fell for his bullshit here. Multiple recall efforts underway, hopefully it works

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

No, that comment was specifically about the circles you probably run in, because nobody else moving cares about the political tribalism you seem to think is all that matters. Normal people move for cheaper housing, overwhelmingly.

And now you know for with surety that out of 115,000 address changes that originated in the Bay Area, only 4,000 were to locations out-of-state.

That must be painful for you accept considering what the right wing echo chamber has been feeding you for years.

Moderator, This poster can throw out baseless accusations but I cannot respond in kind?

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by Obadno

Moderator, This poster can throw out baseless accusations but I cannot respond in kind?

Did you not see that handy image he posted by the USPS? Pivot to poop or SF crime. Shoplifters get in trouble here but that's because they already are criminals with a record, which means they don't qualify for the free theft thing.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by TWAK

Did you not see that handy image he posted by the USPS? Pivot to poop or SF crime. Shoplifters get in trouble here but that's because they already are criminals with a record, which means they don't qualify for the free theft thing.

I honestly cannot tell if this is satire "Shoplifters get in trouble but not the first time" lol okay....

And just so you know I am not biased I spent days in San Francisco in 2019 walked all over the city and came across no poop.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by Obadno

I honestly cannot tell if this is satire "Shoplifters get in trouble but not the first time" lol okay....

And just so you know I am not biased I spent days in San Francisco in 2019 walked all over the city and came across no poop.

Did you visit right after an atmospheric river?

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by Obadno

I honestly cannot tell if this is satire "Shoplifters get in trouble but not the first time" lol okay....

Prop 47, if somebody has a record they don't get the benefits of the law, and yes, there is crime in rural areas.

And just so you know I am not biased I spent days in San Francisco in 2019 walked all over the city and came across no poop.

The last time I went there, there were trailers for showers and restrooms so does the city really need to be blamed for the poop? I saw a dude taking a poop at the Exploratorium in the 90s...

[Crawford]

This entire thread is mostly just culture wars nonsense, trying to link the SF poop and Soros narratives.

SF has declining crime rates and the clearance rate for crimes appears to be at the national level. I have no idea if the SF DA is any good but the city doesn't appear to be an outlier. SF had bums and poop and much higher crime rates 30-40 years ago, when a lot of the conservative white ethnic old guard was still in charge.

[JManc]

Well where do you think the poop came from? George Soros of course. He paid all those bums to carpet bomb San Francisco.

[dktshb]

Originally Posted by Obadno

I honestly cannot tell if this is satire "Shoplifters get in trouble but not the first time" lol okay....

And just so you know I am not biased I spent days in San Francisco in 2019 walked all over the city and came across no poop.

Was driving down camelback and saw person take a crap in broad daylight near Central. We have had to keep homeless people out of the commercial building parking structure which is in Phoenix by hiring security guards. A homeless person lit a fire in one of our dumpsters too after they broke the lock. They are all over the place in Phoenix. I am having a bigger problem there than I am having living in SF. Like I have said. The tenants in the building talk about how terrible it is there.