The opioid epidemic has been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the US over the past two decades, counting those from prescription painkillers such as OxyContin and generic oxycodone as well as illicit drugs such as heroin and illegally produced fentanyl.

The surge in deaths has led to more than 3,000 lawsuits filed by state and local governments, Native American tribes, unions, hospitals and other entities in state and federal courts over the toll of opioids. In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency last year in the Tenderloin neighborhood, saying something had to be done about the high concentration of drug dealers and people consuming drugs in public.

The city attorney’s office says San Francisco saw a nearly 500% increase in opioid-related overdose deaths between 2015 and 2020 and that on a typical day, roughly a quarter of visits at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital Emergency Department are opioid-related.

In 2020, 712 people died of drug overdoses, compared with 257 people who died of COVID-19, according to the city health department.

A high percentage of an estimated 7,800 homeless people in San Francisco — many of whom pitch tents in the Tenderloin — are struggling with chronic addiction or severe mental illness, often both. Some people rant in the streets, nude and in need of medical help.

Pharmacy chains have been south less often than opioid makers or wholesalers that distribute pharmaceuticals more broadly. In one groundbreaking case, a federal jury in Ohio last year found CVS, Walgreens and Walmart recklessly distributed massive amounts of pain pills in two Ohio counties.

In May, Walgreens reached a $683 million settlement with the state of Florida in a lawsuit accusing the company of improperly dispensing millions of painkillers that contributed to the opioid crisis. Walgreens did not admit wrongdoing in its agreement with Florida and will make payments to the state over 18 years.

The company also faces litigation in Alabama, Michigan and New Mexico, among other states.

Deerfield, Illinois-based Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. runs a network of around 9,000 drugstores in the United States. Walgreens and other prescription drug distributors have faced a slew of lawsuits over the opioid crisis.

This article was first published in the Associated Press, with contributions from Associated Press writer Tom Murphy in Indianapolis.

The post ‘Pharmacists Have been Pressured to Fill Fill Fill’: Decide Guidelines Walgreens Culpable in San Francisco Opioid Disaster appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

A San Francisco shoplifter was filmed filling a bag with stolen goods behind the counter of a Walgreens store as staff stood helplessly and watched.

The heist took place on Tuesday at a Walgreens in the Richmond area of ​​the city, and saw the brazen shoplifter hurl bananas and cookies at one man who confronted him.

It is the latest in a long line of shocking shoplifting outrages to hit the famously-liberal Bay Area.

San Francisco and its Bay Area neighbors have been hit hard by a wave of property crimes and smash-and-grab robberies since the start of the pandemic. That has forced multiple branches of Walgreens to close in a bid to stem their theft-related losses amid mounting criticism of soft-on-crime DAs many say are enabling the widespread criminality.

Cellphone video captured by professional photographer Nicholas Stennet shows a man dressed in all black removing items from shelves behind the counter of the San Francisco drug store with utter disregard for two store workers standing right next to him.

One of the employees is on the phone with a 911 dispatcher, reporting a robbery in progress.

At the beginning of the clip, the brazen shoplifter can be seen behind the counter stuffing some of the Walgreens’ most valuable items into a huge bag, while helpless staff look on

Moments later, he was confronted by a male shopper, pictured left, but didn’t take kindly to the check on his behavior…

‘We have this person that is… taking everything from the counter,’ the woman says. ‘Can you send the cops? Can you send them right away, please?’

The looter, meanwhile, calmly moves to a different section of the counter and continues to fill a plastic bag with a variety of goods, including COVID tests, batteries and electronics, according to one eyewitness.

After ransacking the shelves to his heart’s content, the criminal emerges from behind the counter and makes it for the exit.

When a bystander makes an attempt to stand up to him, the audacious bandit grabs a bunch of bananas from a basket and forcefully hurls them at the man, who picks up some of the fruit and lobs them back at the attacker.

…and ended up hurling bananas at the would-be Good Samaritan, who then responded in kind

The shoplifter was evidently annoyed by the have-a-go hero’s decision to stand up to him, and returned to hurl nuts and candy at the unfortunate man

Visibly annoyed by such a hostile reception, the shoplifter grabs packets of chips Ahoy! from a nearby shelf and pelts the Good Samaritan with them, before storming out of he store and triggering the alarm on his way out.

Drug store chains like Walgreens and CVS have become attractive and easy targets for shoplifters, leading to numerous store closures in the Bay Area. In the area’s largest city, San Francisco, low-level offenses, such as retail thefts, have been effectively de-criminalized under the leadership of progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

Boudin, who in a recent interview with the New York Times argued that tough-on-crime policies do not work and blamed the police for the San Francisco’s soaring crime rates, is facing a recall vote on June 7.

Liberal San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin, whose soft-on-crime policies have been blamed for San Francisco’s soaring crime rates, is facing a recall vote in June

Roving gangs of criminals have been carrying out brazen smash-and-grab robberies, targeting high-end stores like Louis Vuitton and Burberry, but also national chains like Walgreens and CVS.

Walgreens said last year that retail theft in San Francisco was five times the chain average and security costs were 46 times the chain average, reported San Francisco Chronicle.

According to the latest available crime data, grand larceny rates in California’s liberal bastion were up 19 per cent in late February, compared with the same period last year.

California Gov Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has vowed to crack down on gangs of retail thieves, despite a controversial 2014 law – Proposition 47 – that barred prosecutors from charging suspected shoplifters accused of stealing less than $950 worth of merchandise with felonies.

The post Shoplifter struts behind counter of San Francisco Walgreens and fills bag full with stolen items appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

IIn mid-October, Walgreens announced the impending closure of five of its San Francisco stores. “Retail theft” has risen to an unsustainable level despite increased investments in security, the chain said. It was time to give up.

In the months leading up to the announcement, viral videos of outrageous shoplifting attempts at Walgreens locations around town – including one that appeared to show a man riding out of a store on his bike with a garbage bag filled with stolen items – had it taking center stage followed a heated national debate about fears of a pandemic-induced “crime wave”.

To critics of the San Francisco leadership, the closings seemed to confirm a narrative long held by people outside of the city and, increasingly, by those inside: that San Francisco is a lawless place where officials operate to the detriment of local businesses Turn a blind eye to crime. Political leaders, including Mayor London Breed, pointed at Walgreens. “When a place is not generating revenue and when it’s saturated – Walgreens has many Walgreens locations across the city – I think other factors come into play,” Breed told reporters.

The Walgreens Excelsior District site three weeks before its closure. Photo: Boris Zharkov / The Guardian

But neighborhood officials and lawyers for people trapped in the legal system paint a more complex picture of Walgreen’s role in San Francisco and the city’s struggles with shoplifting in recent years.

They described Walgreens stores as important places where San Franciscans can get basic groceries at a reasonable price and pick up last minute medicines and other essentials. “We have seniors, working families and long-term customers and I think it will be extremely disruptive, especially for older people who are more pattern-based,” Ahsha Safai said of the closings.

Safai represents the Excelsior District, just outside the historic Latino Mission District, on the San Francisco Board of Directors. The neighborhood’s Walgreens, which closed on November 11, were on a busy section of Mission Street, surrounded by clothing stores, banks, and local restaurants. On a Tuesday afternoon in the weeks leading up to the closure, the shop was bustling with seniors picking up items and residents waiting to be called to the pharmacy counter.

Many shoppers get off the nearby bus routes to get to the Walgreens, making it a convenient stop in a busy area where parking can be abysmal, Safai said. Pedestrian traffic from nearby stores feeds the Walgreens and vice versa, making the drugstore an important part of the neighborhood’s retail ecosystem.

Safai said he worked with police and community organizations to fight retail crime in his neighborhood. “There must be consequences for the most monstrous. People need to know that they can’t go into the store with a garbage bag, ”he said.

“But we’re not going to lock ourselves out of this problem,” he warned. “We have to steer people on the right path.”

“Walgreens were indispensable”

Gina Mullins’ father has worked for Walgreens for more than 40 years, first in the Mission District and then in the East Bay. She remembers going to company picnics as a child and, because of her family’s long history, chose the company to shop at a Walgreens instead of CVS. “Walgreens is a big, big part of my life. It sounds cheesy, but it fed my family. “

Mullins now lives in East Bay seeing her local Walgreens showing telltale signs of theft concerns. More and more items were locked behind plexiglass, she said, and some shelves were consistently empty. While she’s frustrated with the wait it takes to get a store clerk to unlock the products, she doesn’t judge those stolen from the store out of necessity. “I understand hard times, don’t judge anyone. Do what you have to do to support your family. “

Before moving over the Bay Bridge, Mullins worked in public housing near the Walgreens location on Cesar Chavez Street in the Mission District. There she got the flu vaccinations for her four children and bought basic food for the kitchen at lower prices than her local grocery chain. The site is slated to close on November 17th.

“This Walgreens was essential to at least my family,” said Mullins of the Mission District location. “It’s closer than Safeway, has more items than the corner shop, and has a pharmacy attached. It was a staple, so seeing them shut down in neighborhoods that really need them is heartbreaking. “

Mullens works for the Pretrial Diversion Project in San Francisco, a nonprofit that seeks to get people accused of shoplifting and other petty crimes out of jail. The program helps participants keep track of court appearances and orders, and connects them to employment, addiction and other services that can deter them from bringing a new charge. Mullins oversees the employees and works with the groups that provide services to the nonprofit’s customers.

David Mauroff fears high-profile incidents are masking the decline in property crimes reported in 2020. Photo: Boris Zharkov / The Guardian

The organization’s CEO David Mauroff said there was no denying that people were stealing from drug stores, clothing stores, and cars. Mauroff, like many San Franciscans, has a connection with the Walgreens. “I don’t know how many times we ran here to get cold medicine because our child couldn’t sleep,” he said of the chain’s location in Excelsior.

Mauroff saw people steal shoplifting in his local shop. However, he fears high-profile incidents will mask the city’s 2020 drop in property crime. And while he didn’t see an increase in customers for the organization, he has found that the theft hotspots in San Francisco have changed over time as the pandemic progressed.

“There are fewer tourists and fewer people who drive to work – that’s where break-ins used to take place. But because of Covid, people had to find another destination, and unfortunately that turned into Walgreens and other retail stores.

“We do not allow ourselves to be driven by hysteria”

Crime data is complex and often incomplete, and a full picture of what happened in the city during the pandemic still emerges. San Francisco has long had higher levels of property crime than other California cities, but recent data suggests that while some categories of crime have increased while others have decreased.

Theft, the category that shoplifting falls under, appears to have declined from 2019 to 2020, which is lowering the overall rate of real estate crime, according to the San Francisco Police Department’s crime dashboard. Crimes like rape and robbery also fell in 2020, according to an analysis of the latest FBI data from the San Francisco Chronicle. Murders, car thefts, and break-ins increased according to the same FBI data.

The decline in shoplifting appears to continue in 2021. In 2020, according to the San Francisco District Attorney, 12,266 incidents and about 380 arrests were reported for the crime. By the end of October 2021, around 200 people had been arrested for theft or theft that year and there were 9,221 reports. By the end of September last year there had already been 9,558 reports.

Regardless of any discrepancies between perception, data, and lived experience, people breaking into cars near tourist spots like Fisherman’s Wharf and viral videos like the one documenting a man riding his bike out of a Walgreens forced the officers to join one Reaction.

At the end of September 2021, the mayor, together with the San Francisco Police Chief, presented the organized investigation and deterrence strategy for retail theft. The initiative will expand the city’s retail crime rate from two to five officials. The new hires will coordinate with other law enforcement agencies, including the California Highway Police and off-duty officers hired by companies under the city’s 10B program as private security. The city will also triple the number of unarmed community ambassadors from eight to 25.

Mauroff, the CEO of the Pre-Trial Program, said that while the police have a role to play in deterring and combating shoplifting, they are working to find solutions that are not just police-led, but rather the rehabilitative needs of individuals and racial differences taken into account in the criminal justice system.

He noted that during the pandemic lockdown, therapeutic services such as anger management courses, which had previously been found to be helpful, were only available remotely, which is what they are for most of the diversion program’s customers, especially those in the unsafe Living conditions, making it largely inaccessible.

“We mustn’t let ourselves be driven by hysteria so that we can find solutions,” said Mauroff.

The Excelsior District location was closed on November 11th. Photo: Boris Zharkov / The Guardian

Charles Ryan, a case manager with the Pretrial Diversion Project, argued that big companies like Walgreens also had a role to play.

Ryan lives in a community in San Francisco that has already gone through a Walgreens shutdown held responsible for “rampant” theft. In the summer of 2019, Walgreens closed its store in Bayview Hunters Point, a historically black working-class neighborhood near San Francisco Bay.

Ryan said he saw shoplifting in the store but complained that he saw no management efforts to make the drugstore a respected part of the community – for example, educating their staff on implicit biases and keeping the location clean. Black customers are being followed by employees in the store who believed they had come to steal, he said.

“They didn’t have a manager to get the line on how to deal with people who came in,” Ryan said. “Nobody was there to do the high pressure wash and keep it clean, so people said, ‘We just go in and take what we want. They don’t treat us right and have never done anything for the neighborhood. ‘

“Closing the other locations is bad because they are closing some in neighborhoods where people would have to walk around town to get what they need,” he continued. “They’re only closing it because some people stole.”

The post ‘Walgreens fed my household’: contained in the San Francisco shops closing over ‘retail theft’ | San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Walgreens Boots Alliance recently announced that it will close five stores in San Francisco because the company says it was “organized retail theft.” Theft in the Bay Area has risen to five times the national average for Walgreens stores in recent months, the company said, a statistic that has made national headlines and sparked discussions about shoplifting in the city.

San Francisco city officials, journalists and criminal law experts have denied this claim, raising questions about why Walgreens decided to close its stores. San Francisco Mayor London Breed dismissed Walgreens’ claim, saying the real reason could be that the stores are not generating enough revenue and the city is “saturated” with Walgreens outlets.

Walgreens said increased investments in security measures to combat shoplifting have proven costly. “To combat this retail theft, we’ve increased our investment in security measures in stores across town to 46 times our chain average to create a safer environment. This is primarily due to our participation in the city’s 10B program to recruit off-duty SFPD officials for a presence in our stores, ”said Phil Caruso, a Walgreens spokesman, in an email to Quartz. (10-B is a program that enables businesses and events to recruit off-duty San Francisco Police officers for overtime pay.)

In the statement, Caruso points out that the main concern is “organized retail crime,” where professional thieves steal goods for resale on digital marketplaces. In July, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill to reinstate a task force dedicated to combating organized retail theft rings.

City administration is skeptical

Some of the skepticism from San Francisco officials and the public came from Walgreens’ 2019 SEC filing, which reveals a plan to close at least 200 stores in the U.S. as part of a cost-cutting initiative. The drugstore chain lost $ 1.7 billion during the Covid-19 lockdowns and is likely to slowly recover.

“So is Walgreens closing stores for theft or because of a pre-existing business plan to reduce costs and increase profits by consolidating stores and moving customers to online purchases?” San Francisco manager Dean Preston tweeted.

Additionally, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Walgreens stores that are closing had only seven reported shoplifting incidents this year, and the five stores that are slated to close had an average of fewer than two reported shoplifting incidents per month. Many items in Walgreens – including toothpaste, shampoo, and allergy medication – are kept locked up so an employee has to unlock the cabinet for the customer. The Chronicle also reported that despite media reports, the number of reported shoplifting incidents is falling.

What is Prop 47?

Some observers attribute the Walgreens closure to Proposition 47, a 2014 referendum that aimed to reduce some felony to misdemeanor. The move was welcomed by advocates of the criminal justice system as a way to curb incarceration for lower-level crimes or “crimes of survival” often committed by the unhodged or living in poverty. However, a common misconception is that Proposition 47 prevents the arrest and prosecution of those who commit retail theft. The referendum classified the theft of property up to $ 950 as a misdemeanor only, not a crime. Retailers tried unsuccessfully to reset Proposition 47 in 2020.

Criminal law researchers argue that a better approach to curbing retail theft is to diagnose the real problems. “Prop 47 is believed to be responsible for these thefts,” says Charis Kubrin, professor of criminology, law, and society at the University of California at Irvine. “So many other things are happening at the same time along with Prop 47. We have a pandemic, we have a recession and increasing poverty, inequality and unemployment. We have mobility, people traveling in and out of San Francisco, which affects traffic, and people shopping at Walgreens. “

There are also criminal justice advocates that this Walgreens-sponsored narrative will spark efforts to recall progressive San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and hamper criminal justice reform in the city. “What you have are people who support policies or develop strategies that are not based on what the data shows, but based on fear of crime, moral panic and the politicization of that policy,” said Kubrin.

The post Why is Walgreens actually closing its shops in San Francisco? — Quartz appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Nick Shoman has been with Charlie’s Pharmacy since he was 12 when his parents bought the storefront on Fillmore Street and Golden Gate Avenue. He started helping out on the floor and quickly got to know the names of the customers.

Almost 35 years later, Shoman now runs the business with his brother, and the family-owned drugstore has become an integral part of the neighborhood.

Shoman knows his regular customers and their families and calls his pharmacist Hank Chen the “best in San Francisco” because he takes time for each customer to look after and advise them individually. Charlie’s Pharmacy works with nearby nonprofits to offer delivery and bulk orders. Shoman will occasionally agree to refill prescriptions on credit for customers in financial distress.

Shoman says that’s a far cry from Walgreens, which recently announced plans to close five San Francisco locations.

“In a chain of stores, customers are just numbers,” he said.

Walgreens blamed uncontrolled retail theft for the recent wave of closings.

A Walgreens at 300 Gough St. is among San Francisco stores that are closing due to ongoing retail theft. (Kevin N. Hume / The Examiner)

Yet even San Francisco – which is known to be particularly tough on retail chains – has relatively little leverage over Walgreens or other corporate retailers when it comes to closing stores. This reality has left officials vying for recourse and struggling to find a way forward to prevent something similar from happening again.

Independent drugstores could be a way to fill the void left by corporate outlets in some communities.

Owners can live well, and the stores offer customers bespoke services and attention that they may not find in chain competitors, according to David Valencia, manager at Reliable Rexall Sunset Pharmacy.

“I think you will see more independents emerge,” he said.

Rexall Drugs in the Inner Sunset pharmacist David Valencia says his store offers specialty products that most chains don’t have. (Kevin N. Hume / The Examiner)

Any control the city has over the flow of business in and out of the market is done through the permitting process overseen by the planning commission.

For example, San Francisco’s formula retail ban prevents businesses with more than 11 locations from opening in certain business districts such as Hayes Valley, North Beach, and Chinatown, although exemptions may be granted.

Chains like Walgreens are required to obtain conditional use permits to operate in most other locations – which requires a thorough review by the planning committee to determine the impact on the surrounding neighborhood – and sometimes the applicant requires mitigating measures.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin even proposed legislation in July that would make it difficult for a new business to replace a laundromat. The aim is to protect laundromat owners from predatory landlords and to prevent these dwindling businesses from closing further.

However, none of these measures force a company to stay open or to encourage a certain type of storefront – like a pharmacy – to take up a vacancy.

Valencia, who has over 40 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including his time with several large chains, wants to make it known that independent drugstores can compete with their chain counterparts.

Rexall was once a widespread national chain, but it was phased out in the 1970s after being sold to private investors. Some franchise locations, such as the one on Ninth Avenue and Irving Street, were allowed to continue using the name but have no connection with the former Behometh and are now independently operated.

At Rexall, Valencia offers personalized customer advice, supplies products to elderly residents in the neighborhood, carries special health products and promotes wellness coaching opportunities. He says the store has established itself in the community by developing meaningful, lasting relationships with returning customers.

“Walgreens isn’t really a competition,” he said. “We can offer special products that most chains don’t have, and we’re more agile.”

From left, pharmacist David Valencia worked with pharmacy technicians Adam Le and Marc Adriano at Rexall Drugs on October 19. (Kevin N. Hume / The Examiner)

However, these outstanding qualities can only be offered when business is up and running. This is an expensive and time consuming process that has historically given many larger retailers an advantage over smaller ones.

In the wake of the pandemic, San Francisco has already taken steps to relieve local traders: Proposition H streamlines the approval process and increases flexibility for new small businesses. Shared spaces enable companies to operate more easily in parts of public space. And Mayor London Breed backed a bill that provides $ 5 million in fee waivers, reliefs and deferrals.

Valencia and Shoman would like more support. In addition to helping individual traders, they say it reinvigorates entire trade corridors by preventing vacancies and increasing pedestrian traffic – which itself could act as a deterrent to the type of retail crime that Walgreens cited as the reason for its departure.

“There are a lot of stores that have closed during the pandemic and it affects me because I used to have some of that pedestrian traffic,” Shoman said. “If I have free business around me, it does not help me and is of no use to anyone.”

In the name of economic recovery, other potential solutions have focused more on enforcement.

Supervisor Ahsha Safai, whose district is about to close one of five Walgreens locations in Excelsior, passed a law in September that allows sheriff’s deputies to work off-duty as security guards in private companies.

This option is already made available to officers in the San Francisco Police Department, so the program would only extend the option to law enforcement in the sheriff’s office.

“If we don’t take care … we’re not going to make people feel safe going back to The City,” said Safai. “We have to take care of it. I definitely don’t want to go back to the time of over-incarceration, but this has to stop. “

As for the fixes, however, doubling enforcement isn’t seen as the best way forward by everyone, even those who acknowledge that organized retail theft continues to haunt the city.

“That’s why it’s so important to understand why they’re actually closing, and not just take their representations at face value,” said District Five Supervisor Dean Preston. “It’s hard to come up with a solution to this or other stores closing without information on why they are closing.”

Residents and elected officials alike expressed frustration with Walgreens over the wave of closings. They phrased the decision as a decision for the drugstore to leave the community and leave seniors, families and other individuals who rely on pharmacies near their homes without warning.

“It’s a neighborhood where residents, especially the elderly and other vulnerable community members, depend on having a pharmacy nearby,” Preston said of the 300 Gough St site closure Local community.”

In contrast, independent drug stores are typically close partners in the community.

“We don’t care about the lower dollar,” Shoman said. “We’re pretty empathetic when it comes to our customers.”

cgraf@sfexaminer.com

Rexall Drugs in the Sunset is operated independently. (Kevin N. Hume / The Examiner)

The post Walgreens closures open the door for San Francisco’s neighborhood pharmacies appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Customers walk past products locked in safety cabinets at a Walgreens store scheduled to close in San Francisco, California on October 13, 2021. Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

• Walgreens said it was closing some stores in San Francisco due to an increase in retail thefts.

• Police data obtained from the Chronicle did not show high rates of shoplifting reports in the shops that were closing.

• An expert said people leaving town during the pandemic could harm Walgreens’ business.

Walgreens announced Tuesday that it would close five of its San Francisco locations for “organized retail crime” Saturday.

While the report says the chain experienced retail theft, other factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and store oversaturation were cited as potential factors in the decision to close stores.

Walgreens spokesman Phil Caruso said retail theft at its San Francisco locations had increased five times the chain’s average in recent months, SFGate reported.

However, the data from the San Francisco Police Department received from the Chronicle contradicts claims made by Walgreens, as one of the stores slated to close since 2018 has only reported 23 shoplifting incidents per month since 2018.

“Organized retail crime remains a challenge for retailers across San Francisco, and we are not immune to it,” Caruso told SFGate. “To combat this problem, we have increased our investments in security measures in stores across the city over this time to 46 times our chain average to create a safe environment.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed dismissed Walgreens’ reasons for closing the shops.

“They say (shoplifting is) the main reason, but I also think when a place is not generating revenue and when it’s saturated – SF has a lot of Walgreens locations across the city – so I think there are other factors coming into play “she told reporters last week.

The story goes on

Dean Preston, supervisor for San Francisco’s 5th District, which will be affected by a store closure, said the pharmacy chain was “out of the community” and had “long planned to close,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

“Weird that some would be so offended that I would suggest that a huge corporate chain shut down retail locations for the very reason they told investors they were going to shut down, rather than the reasons outlined in their external PR are specified, ”said Preston in a tweet on Friday.

In a 2019 filing by the Security and Exchange Commission, Walgreens announced it would launch a Transformational Cost Management Program that would close 200 stores in the US to save $ 1.5 billion annually through 2022 in spending.

A May study published by Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom found that 15% of San Francisco residents left and did not return during the pandemic, which the Chronicle says could explain Walgreens’ dwindling customer base in the city.

San Francisco has relatively high rates of property crime, which according to the Chronicle, criminal justice researcher Magnus Lofstrom may be due in part to the Bay Area’s enormous income equality.

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

Read the original article on Business Insider

The post Walgreens cited shoplifting as rationale for closing 5 shops in San Francisco, however native officers, information, and consultants forged doubt on that rationalization appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. has announced that it will close five Walgreens stores in San Francisco in response to the rise in organized retail crime.

Walgreens says it will bring recipes and workers from the closed stores to nearby locations. Recipes are posted in shops within a mile of the hotel.

“Retail theft at our San Francisco stores has continued to increase five times our chain average in recent months,” the company said in a statement.

“To combat this problem, we have increased our investment in security measures in stores across the city over this period to 46 times our chain average to create a safe environment.”

Target Corp. TGT, +1.50%, cut hours at its five San Francisco locations this summer due to the increase in theft.

See: Target cuts opening hours in San Francisco due to “alarming increase” in shoplifting

Video of a man stealing from one of the San Francisco Walgreens WBA, -3.64% locations and then going out of business on a bike went viral earlier this year.

Rachel Michelin, president and chief executive officer of the California Retailers Association, told MarketWatch this summer that organized retail crime has been an issue in the state for years.

Walgreens says it will close its stores between November 8th and 17th. Patients do not need to take any action to postpone their prescriptions.

Walgreens stock is up 27.4% over the year to date, while the benchmark S&P 500 SPX is up + 0.75% over the period, up 18%.

The post Walgreens shutting 5 San Francisco areas because of organized retail crime appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

In response to the unflattering tale, the elected leaders and progressive activists of San Francisco questioned the legitimacy of Walgreen’s statement for the store closings.

“They say that’s the main reason, but I also think when a place is not generating revenue and when it’s saturated – SF has a lot of Walgreens locations across the city – so I think there are other factors that are ins Game coming, ”Mayor London Breed told reporters on Wednesday.

Supervisor Dean Preston then wrote a Twitter thread complaining that “media reports without analysis have accepted Walgreens’ claim that it will be closed for retail theft,” and shared a 2019 SEC filing in which Walgreens announced plans to close 200 stores.

“So is Walgreens closing stores for theft or because of a pre-existing business plan to reduce costs and increase profits by consolidating stores and moving customers to online purchases?” asked Preston.

The city’s leaders and critics alike seem highly motivated to preserve their respective narratives, and the online discourse about the Walgreens closings is as polarized as one would expect when it comes to San Francisco crime.

To understand if Walgreens is telling the truth, let’s start with the SEC filing of August 2019, which Preston and other city progressives largely share. It states that the company plans to close “around 200 locations in the US” as part of a “cost management program” announced in December 2018.

For reference, the closings made up about 3% of Walgreens’ nearly 10,000 locations in the United States, CNBC reported, and Walgreens has closed 10 San Francisco locations since early 2019.

A Walgreens spokesperson told SFGATE in an email that the cost-cutting program to shut down locations in San Francisco was “pre-completed” before it was announced on Wednesday that five more stores would be closing.

When SFGATE asked Walgreens to respond directly to Preston and others’ allegations that the chain was considering considerations other than retail theft, the spokesman stopped returning emails.

Theft theft is up nearly 8% year-over-year, according to the San Francisco Crime Dashboard, although crime stats are skewed downwards in 2020 as the early days of the pandemic nearly brought life to a halt and forced temporary store closings.

If you compare the thefts of 2021 with the numbers before the pandemic of 2019, you will find that the number of thefts has actually decreased. From January 1, 2021 to October 10, 2021, there were 21,842 reports of theft, and over the same period in 2019 there were 31,958 reports, a decrease of 31.6%.

There were 33,312 reports of theft in the same period in 2018 and 35,483 reports in that period in 2017, so the number of theft reports has actually decreased in recent years.

Analyzing San Francisco’s crime statistics without external reference doesn’t tell the whole story, however, as the city has a higher than average rate of property crime. FBI data from 2017 showed that San Francisco had the highest property crime rate per capita of the 20 largest cities in the United States, and SF had the highest property crime rate in the state of California in 2019.

However, the data does not support the assumption that theft has increased significantly in recent years – although there has been an increase in viral videos depicting brazen thefts. Walgreens could argue that San Francisco retail theft rates are still so high that year-over-year declines don’t move the needle and the San Francisco operations remain unprofitable, but the company hasn’t opened its books – and will probably not doing it for perusal.

It’s also worth noting that theft encompasses a broader range of crimes than just retail theft, including theft of bicycles, automotive parts and accessories. San Francisco does not report isolated statistics on retail theft, let alone isolated drugstore theft.

Regardless, the Walgreens and San Francisco crime-related situation is a little more complex than the prevailing narratives suggest.

The post What is going on on with San Francisco Walgreens closures? appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) – Retail chain Walgreens announced Tuesday that it was closing five of its San Francisco stores for retail theft.

Meanwhile, SF overseer Ahsha Safai said he hoped a law he recently proposed can prevent stores from closing more locations.

CONTINUE READING: June suspect identified San Jose man killing; Family members ask for help finding him

According to Walgreens, it will close its following SF locations next month: 2550 Ocean Ave., 4645 Mission St., 745 Clement St., 300 Gough St., and 3400 Cesar Chavez St.

“Because of the ongoing organized retail crime, we made the difficult decision to close five stores across San Francisco,” Walgreens said in a statement Tuesday.

“Organized retail crime remains a challenge for retailers across San Francisco, and we are not immune to it. Retail theft at our San Francisco stores has continued to rise in the past few months, up to five times our chain average. To combat this issue, during that time we have increased our investment in security measures in stores across the city to 46 times our chain average to create a safe environment, “the company said.

Upon hearing the news, Safai said the closings would severely affect children, families and seniors, many of whom get their prescription drugs from Walgreens pharmacies.

“I am completely devastated by this news. This closure will have a significant impact on this community. Less than a mile from seven schools, this Walgreens has been a staple for families and children for decades, ”he said of the Mission Street location. “The city must act urgently to reduce and prevent the number of incidents of commercial retail theft.”

Safai has worked with Walgreens and other retailers to find solutions to rampant and ever brazen retail thefts across the city.

CONTINUE READING: Salty Tap Water Forces Pt. Reyes residents can fill and carry their own bottles

Two weeks ago, Safai introduced a law that would amend the city’s administrative law to allow sheriff’s deputies to enter into contracts with businesses, private events, and community areas to ensure safety. Under the law, private companies would pay MPs overtime at no cost to the taxpayer.

San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto supports the legislation.

“With the recent surge in property crimes in San Francisco, the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office (SFSO) stands ready to do its part to keep our communities safe,” said Miyamoto. “Our office and our members support legislation that allows FSO employees to be present in shops and companies to ensure everyone’s safety and reduce the opportunities to commit crimes. It is important to keep stores in our community to provide access not only to retail stores but also to pharmacies and medical services that host or offer them. “

In addition to the proposed laws, Safai has also set up a commercial retail theft working group that will include Police Chief Bill Scott and District Attorney Chesa Boudin, which will make policy recommendations.

Scott and Mayor London Breed also announced a number of new initiatives to address retail theft last month, including expanding the police’s organized retail crime division and recruiting more retired police officers to patrol the neighborhoods.

Back in July, Governor Gavin Newsom announced an aggressive enforcement plan aimed at a staggering increase in brazen retail thefts by organized gangs.

With the five Walgreens locations closed next month, Walgreens said each store prescriptions will be automatically transferred to another Walgreens location nearby within a mile radius and patients will receive a notification in the mail. In addition, the company announced that it will be relocating employees at the closure locations to other nearby locations.

MORE NEWS: Los Gatos woman accused of hosting a series of drunk teen sex parties

© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The post Walgreens to Shut 5 San Francisco Shops On account of Rising Retail Theft – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.