Walgreens plans to close 200 stores

buckguy
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Re: Walgreens plans to close 200 stores

Post by buckguy »

Coastal cities, generally, have a bigger homeless problem than those inland. My first trip Seattle (c. 1987) was memorable in part because of the sheer numbers of obviously drunk people (mostly white men) on the downtown streets. Even a large inland city like Chicago had nothing like that. And it's easy for people to move up and down a coast---there are various migrant streams that do that on the East Coast, esp. the younger homeless. There are more hidden movements such as the older, marginally housed guys who move among VA hospitals.

As for why these stores are closing--if this is their 7th closure, then they probably have too many stores for the size of the market and what they sell. Retail construction has been outstripping population growth since the 70s. It has to end at some point because its unsustainable and just because property has been retail for many years doesn't make that a good use of the property now. The growth of online retail just makes the oversupply worse, but it's a fundamental problem on its own, anyway.
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Re: Walgreens plans to close 200 stores

Post by SamSpade »

Alpha8472 wrote: February 20th, 2020, 11:16 pm Another San Francisco, California Walgreens is closing. The 730 Market Street store will close March 3. It is the seventh Walgreens store to close in the city since early 2019.

An employee from the closing store described a bum rush of homeless people grabbing merchandise and running. They had to lock up the Blue Diamond almonds since they were being stolen so often.
I guess this is possible. Some thoughts as someone that was just in the financial district of San Francisco and lives/works in the city center of Portland, Ore.

a) There were significantly fewer tents or "camps" on the sidewalks in San Francisco, especially in the financial district. I'm not sure if this is due to California laws vs. Oregon (in Oregon, other than a few designated blocks, cities cannot prevent people from sitting or lying on sidewalks)
b) I did see a few men passed out (or close) in subway tunnel entrances in the same areas
c) Like Portland, good luck finding a "public" restroom in most cases. Many businesses don't even have one facing customers, which may partly be due to construction/age/looser "ADA Compliant" remodeling laws (?).
d) You're practically a stone's throw from a Walgreens anywhere you walk down Market St. It's possible they're finally starting to pull back from some of this high cost real estate. On the concourse (subway) level of the Westfield San Francisco Centre, the directory showed a Walgreens market. When walking through, I found the former storefront, but it had been shuttered.
e) I did see a fellow panhandle some food off someone and sit and eat in the mall's food court. Then again, I've been solicited for money in Powell's in Portland ...
f) I generally felt safe in the city during daylight and early evening hours - I didn't notice some of the problems noted in Seattle's downtown recently
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