It is all over the place as to whom is saying that theft is the issue. The City? The retailer? Law enforcement? The Media?pseudo3d wrote: ↑October 16th, 2021, 7:23 amAlpha8472 wrote: ↑October 15th, 2021, 5:03 pm The problem is not just theft. The problem is that Walgreens has the highest prices and worst selection of items. The prices are so high that it is like price gouging. Ever since the corporate office has been doing the merchandising, there has been less and less appeal to the stores. They used to have souvenirs and really good things to buy. Now it is an awful place to shop at.
There are other drugstores in the city that have a better selection of items and lower prices.
The mayor and some of the city supervisors say that the reasons for closing the stores is not theft. The data shows that theft rates are down from even before the pandemic in 2019. Walgreens had managed to drive away their customers by high prices and awful stores. The mayor and supervisors say that the Walgreens' explanation of theft is painting the city of San Francisco as lawless. The news story is making headlines across the country and is discouraging tourism to the city. The mayor believes that Walgreens had planned to close and consolidate stores anyway.
San Francisco is still a very nice place to visit and aside from the worst neighborhoods the city has a vibrant retail shopping scene.
Of course the city is going to say that it wasn't theft, especially if crime rates don't cover unreported theft (what's the point of reporting theft if you know nothing will be done about it, or worse, get sued for it?) or are tweaked to take into account the decriminalized theft laws.
That's not to say that Walgreens' business model doesn't have problems, but I get the feeling that the city is really trying to cover for a more serious problem.
Then some of the very same folks say that these closures were planned independent of Covid or theft.
I believe the latter. Why? Because just like everyone was reporting that there was a massive exodus of renters from Los Angeles to other places resulting in huge vacancies..........................it did not happen. I just moved and everywhere I went the occupancy rate was above 90% up to 96% (except in brand new properties).
Also, crime reporting is most often voluntary as well as What to report. It is not codified nor enforced much less legally required with accountability and penalty.