The incident has been heavily cited by those looking for a more aggressive approach to law enforcement in the city. However, a recent announcement involving retail theft is being met with a different response.
Drugstore chain Walgreens said it would be closing an additional five stores in the city, bringing the number of shuttered locations to 22 in the past five years, according toInstead of cries for a crackdown on crime, the news has been met with intense skepticism.that, citing data from the city’s Police Department, pointed out how one store set to close “had only seven reported shoplifting incidents this year and a total of 23 since 2018.
“Media reports have accepted without analysis Walgreens’ assertion that it’s closing due to retail theft,” Preston wrote, in part. “Is Walgreens closing stores because of theft or because of a pre-existing business plan to cut costs and increase profits by consolidating stores and shifting customers to online purchases?”
Walgreens didn’t respond to the Chronicle article when asked for a comment on the paper’s claims. Instead, the company said in a statement: “Organized retail crime continues to be a challenge facing retailers across San Francisco, and we are not immune to that. Retail theft across our San Francisco stores has continued to increase in the past few months to five times our chain average.
Family moves from neighborhood citing shootings despite ONLY getting shot 23 times since 2018
I was in SF a month and saw a homeless man run out of Starbucks with 10 lbs of coffee
You act like it’s not true. There’s so many videos out there showing it.
Sloppy reporting. Walgreens prior plans to close some stores does not take away from realities of in-store theft (reported or otherwise); it merely helps them decide which stores. No reason to imply otherwise. But sadly bias has become the norm for the once admired LA Times. 😔
These Cities need to get rid of the bumbs.
Of course this makes believe Walgreens would need an excuse to close their own stores. Especially when they already said they would be closing stores.
When I was last in SF in 2018, it felt like every 2 blocks I walked, there was a Walgreens. Yeah, oversaturated probably describes it.
I’m just here for the comments 🍿
“‘Media reports have accepted without analysis Walgreens’ assertion that it’s closing due to retail theft,’ Preston wrote, in part. ‘Is Walgreens closing stores because of theft or because of a pre-existing business plan to cut costs & increase profits by consolidating stores’” +
Good to see the Times not falling for the fake news and calling out Walgreens for lying about their profit motivation