Stores & Riots

This is the place for general and miscellaneous posts on topics which might extend past the boundaries of any specific region. No non-grocery posts.
Super S
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Re: Stores & Riots

Post by Super S »

Alpha8472 wrote: June 3rd, 2020, 10:58 am The conspiracy theories aside, it is clear that the looters are tracking where the protests are through the media.

Once protests are located, the looters send out their groups of cars to those cities. The police are distracted by the protesters, so the looters target the stores.

Cities where there are no protests have police who can respond right away. The organized looters are avoiding those cities.

It is time for a trap. Inform the media of a protest in one city. Have the police set traps: spike strips, limited access to cars, freeway traps, trackers, etc. They need to bust the crime rings and find out who is responsible.
Portland has at least one TV station that has been providing non-stop news coverage of the protests, without commercials, since this all started. The protests tend to escalate as the night goes on. I personally would not visit the downtown area of any major city for any shopping right now. The malls closer to downtown areas, such as Pioneer Place and Lloyd Center in Portland are going to be struggling after this.

Portland has seen some major stores leaving downtown and opening suburban locations. I expect this to continue if these protests drag on too long.
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Re: Stores & Riots

Post by buckguy »

Things vary regionally. I'm away from DC this week and have been in Cleveland---the property damage was concentrated downtown and an adjacent gentrified area---there isn't a lot of street level retail left, so much of it was breaking windows of banks, restaurants, etc. Drug stores were the main retail targetSome of it was selective---Huntington Bank, but not PNC (I've been a customer of both and wasn't surprised about Huntington,--a really crappy bank), and nothing in the suburbs, although a couple upscale suburban complexes were setting up barriers and adding security at their entrances.

From what people tell me in DC(I live near some of the damaged areas and know people who were out with the protests), the looters were a different group from the demonstrators. Drug stores were the only real targets in areas outside of the traditional downtown and inner business districts like H Street and 14th/U, and only a few were hit. A hard hit area I notice last Sunday am was the upscale City Center complex which was odd given the amount of security they'd had in the evenings before Saturday. City Center is owned by one of the Gulf sovereign funds, so there could have been a political element, although I think it mostly was getting luxury goods.

Most crime is tied to drugs, so I would imagine that any organized looting was tied to the drug trade, as well as the more disorganized opportunistic efforts and of course the drug stores would have been targeted by the drug trade, although I would imagine that most controlled substances are locked up---the heyday of heavy drug use in the 70s forced drug stores to get serious about what they carried and how they managed it because robberies were so commonplace. There are some drugs that might not be secured and have abuse potential like Gabapentin, but I suspect that the people hitting drug stores didn't get what they thought they might find.

Given that the pattern of looting and vandalism varies from place to place, I wouldn't get too tin hat or Fox News about alot stuff. OTOH, the right wingers trying to influence antifa (which is apparently a fairly loosely organized group---they're anrachists, after all) and the obvious interference from various outside parties in the election process doesn't rule out some organized bad actors, some of whom may not be obvious. The efforts to spread false rumors about demonstrators by the Pizzagate crew also raises questions.
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Re: Stores & Riots

Post by Alpha8472 »

Many pharmacies know the narcotic drugs are being targeted. They have heavily invested in time delay secure safes. They could set the stores on fire and the safes will survive.

Most pharmacies during the riots have stopped deliveries of narcotic drugs. You will not find any even if you broke into the safe. The drugs have been moved out long ago. These looters are now wasting their time.

In the long run, these pharmacies in bad neighborhoods just won't stock any narcotic drugs. Legitimate patients will suffer, due to the greed of the criminals.

This is why we can't have nice things.
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Re: Stores & Riots

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

Alpha8472 wrote: June 4th, 2020, 8:19 pm In the long run, these pharmacies in bad neighborhoods just won't stock any narcotic drugs. Legitimate patients will suffer, due to the greed of the criminals.
Worse yet, they might just close altogether. We're all familiar with food deserts and now we might have med deserts.
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Re: Stores & Riots

Post by BillyGr »

Alpha8472 wrote: June 4th, 2020, 8:19 pm Many pharmacies know the narcotic drugs are being targeted. They have heavily invested in time delay secure safes. They could set the stores on fire and the safes will survive.

Most pharmacies during the riots have stopped deliveries of narcotic drugs. You will not find any even if you broke into the safe. The drugs have been moved out long ago. These looters are now wasting their time.

In the long run, these pharmacies in bad neighborhoods just won't stock any narcotic drugs. Legitimate patients will suffer, due to the greed of the criminals.

This is why we can't have nice things.
Although one would suspect they get deliveries often enough that they could just not stock them and only order when someone needed them (that is, you drop off/send in the prescription today and they get it delivered the next morning for you to pick up that day - thus they are not in the store overnight at any point).
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Re: Stores & Riots

Post by submariner »

I'm going to lock this topic. It has outrun its usefulness and is borderline political.
Locked