Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

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ClownLoach
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Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by ClownLoach »

veteran+ wrote: October 19th, 2021, 9:01 am Ahhh yes.......

The 4 or 5 Ds of loss prevention:

Deter
Detect
Delay
Deny

And sometimes Destroy? and Defend?

The problem is, if sufficient payroll is not provided, shrink will be reduced and sales will be decreased OR too much payroll will reduce profit margins.

I have seen the 4 Ds employed with little manpower used that caused severe reduction in sales. I have seen huge payroll increases (including outside services) that was not sustainable. I have also seen product discontinued after a plethora of attempts by these Ds of loss prevention.

It is a persistent conundrum!
And the professionals know that if they can deceive the store LP to arrest them when they have ditched the merchandise it's a guaranteed million dollar lawsuit settlement. The lookouts will distract LP in an effort to see if they can be conned into a false arrest because it's like winning the lottery. So nobody wants to arrest. And public records of shoplifting police reports can go viral and impact the stock price since Wall Street is so ignorant they believe shoplifting is completely preventable and only happens in poorly managed companies. So nobody can report the crime even if they would prosecute. The balance of power is completely in the favor of the thieves now and external loss has become devastating.
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Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by storewanderer »

88 Spear is also closing.
Used to be a busy store... ton of small transactions.
The area has turned into a ghost town. And the few folks who are going to the office, aren't sticking around long enough or going there enough days in a week to need the Walgreens.
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Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by bryceleinan »

Walgreens also closed the Park St. store in Alameda back in 2020 - this is the one I would normally go to considering it as the closest to Coast Guard Island. Gave me the creeps then, since there was a fair amount of crime in the area. I'm thinking you may see chains like Walgreens decide SF and Oakland are not worth the cost of doing business anymore.
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Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by Alpha8472 »

Those Walgreens stores in San Francisco used to be packed around 2006. There were wall to wall crowds of tourists and office workers. I literally felt claustrophobic with just inches between other customers. The prices were high, but the tourists and rich office workers shopped like crazy. There was no Target or Walmart nearby, so people had no other choice. At the time, the homeless problem was not bad at all. The streets were cleaner and there seemed to be many more employees stocking the shelves.

Things only really started falling apart when the homeless population started getting out of control and the office workers disappeared.

There was a Walgreens in the rich suburb of San Ramon that was in a prime location next to a Lucky Supermarket near a freeway. Walgreens closed it and it recently reopened as a Dollar Tree. That was a foolish move as there were no other Walgreens nearby and only a few pharmacies in that area.
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Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: February 20th, 2022, 6:28 pm Those Walgreens stores in San Francisco used to be packed around 2006. There were wall to wall crowds of tourists and office workers. I literally felt claustrophobic with just inches between other customers. The prices were high, but the tourists and rich office workers shopped like crazy. There was no Target or Walmart nearby, so people had no other choice. At the time, the homeless problem was not bad at all. The streets were cleaner and there seemed to be many more employees stocking the shelves.

Things only really started falling apart when the homeless population started getting out of control and the office workers disappeared.

There was a Walgreens in the rich suburb of San Ramon that was in a prime location next to a Lucky Supermarket near a freeway. Walgreens closed it and it recently reopened as a Dollar Tree. That was a foolish move as there were no other Walgreens nearby and only a few pharmacies in that area.
Walgreens had a fantastic lock on San Francisco. I was really surprised over the years how many stores they had, so close together. I think the Target openings really hurt them too. The San Francisco Walgreens definitely were hurt to some degree by the corporate one size fits all approach being employed there and modifying the localized merchandising, staffing, and pricing/promotion decisions that were previously taking place prior to the 2010's.

Walgreens does close stores in well off areas as well. It is interesting to see where they close stores (and also in some cases where they keep stores open). A well off area does not seem to equate to success for some chains.
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Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by storewanderer »

Another wonderful video. Shoplifter shows up with large reusable bag. Fills it up, including going right behind the counter with the employees. Some customer tries to get into it with the shoplifter and the shoplifter responds by successfully throwing a banana at the customer, then the customer tries to throw a banana at the shoplifter and appears to miss.

Time to ban the reusable bags in these high theft locations as they are being used by shoplifters to "blend in" and shoplift. Also pretty sure the employees may have gone a bit beyond what policies say, especially with a shoplifter who wanted to throw stuff; they could have gotten hurt. They are just supposed to offer exceptional customer service. Or ignore it.

Also wonder if these stores need an exit that is a holding chamber in the exit foyer like a bank exit. Oh wait, the police don't show up, and there is no good way to know if they stole over $950 anyway if they are on the way out the door, so what is the use of holding them. Probably lose money keeping them held and not being able to let other customers in/out anyway. Truly a lose lose situation.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... goods.html
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Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by rwsandiego »

storewanderer wrote: March 5th, 2022, 12:45 am Another wonderful video. Shoplifter shows up with large reusable bag. Fills it up, including going right behind the counter with the employees. ...Time to ban the reusable bags in these high theft locations as they are being used by shoplifters to "blend in" and shoplift. ...
Such a rule would be completely ineffective. Someone who is willing to break the law by shoplifting is not going to observe a rule against bringing a reusable bag to a store. Besides, they don't need a reusable bag. They can roll up a couple of ordinary grocery bags and put them in their pockets or bring a purse/backpack with them.
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Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by storewanderer »

rwsandiego wrote: March 5th, 2022, 6:23 pm
storewanderer wrote: March 5th, 2022, 12:45 am Another wonderful video. Shoplifter shows up with large reusable bag. Fills it up, including going right behind the counter with the employees. ...Time to ban the reusable bags in these high theft locations as they are being used by shoplifters to "blend in" and shoplift. ...
Such a rule would be completely ineffective. Someone who is willing to break the law by shoplifting is not going to observe a rule against bringing a reusable bag to a store. Besides, they don't need a reusable bag. They can roll up a couple of ordinary grocery bags and put them in their pockets or bring a purse/backpack with them.
It would be effective. The reason it would be effective is because the individual who is breaking the law by shoplifting would stand out as the only person on the sales floor with their own bag. This would also make it much easier for security to quickly identify individuals who are looking to shoplift. While it would not stop shoplifting entirely, it would go a long ways to make the shoplifter less comfortable. Also if the shoplifter brings in their own (large) reusable bags, that large reusable bag can fit a lot more stuff than a bag they may just hide in their pocket (which may rip as they pull it out, etc.). Other thing is I have seen some shoplifters go into the store and grab a gift bag from the greeting card aisle and use that to fill up. Those bags aren't real strong and watching them break due to being overfilled and watching the shoplifter bolt out with either nothing or the few items they can grab and run with after calling attention to themself with the bag breaking and items going all over is quite humorous.

You also have to prohibit backpacks. Someone can only fit so much into a purse but purses have been being brought into stores for years, that is nothing new. This is why many stores have a no backpacks policy and you have certain ethnic stores in CA that do not allow you to bring reusable bags into the sales floor of the store with you, they make you leave them up front (such as the Cal Mart in Alhambra).

Why do you think theft has turned into such a big problem for these drug stores, supermarket chains, and discount chains like Target and Wal Mart in California (who are all subject to the bag ban/forced to encourage reusable bags) yet we do not hear of these huge uptick in thefts happening with the chains like Macy's, Home Depot, etc. who are not subject to the bag ban (and where you do not see anyone using a reusable bag)? Connect the dots.
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Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by mbz321 »

storewanderer wrote: March 5th, 2022, 9:14 pm

Why do you think theft has turned into such a big problem for these drug stores, supermarket chains, and discount chains like Target and Wal Mart in California (who are all subject to the bag ban/forced to encourage reusable bags) yet we do not hear of these huge uptick in thefts happening with the chains like Macy's, Home Depot, etc. who are not subject to the bag ban (and where you do not see anyone using a reusable bag)? Connect the dots.

There have been plenty of stories of people running out of Macy's and similar stores with arms full of clothing, or loading up carts at Home Depot and running out the door. Criminals will always find a way and 'banning' reusable bags isn't going to stop a damn thing. And as we have seen in some of these brazen 'bag filling' thefts, security, if there is any present, pretty much has no power to do anything either, they are there for show in most cases and criminals know this.
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Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by storewanderer »

mbz321 wrote: March 6th, 2022, 10:22 am


There have been plenty of stories of people running out of Macy's and similar stores with arms full of clothing, or loading up carts at Home Depot and running out the door. Criminals will always find a way and 'banning' reusable bags isn't going to stop a damn thing. And as we have seen in some of these brazen 'bag filling' thefts, security, if there is any present, pretty much has no power to do anything either, they are there for show in most cases and criminals know this.
That has been going on for a long, long time though. I don't see Macy's, Home Depot, etc. crying to the media about increased thefts in their California locations, the way we have been seeing it with drugstore chains and grocery store chains. I don't see them saying they are closing locations over theft issues. I don't see them closing stores at 6 PM that should be open until Midnight.

It is entirely possible there has been an uptick in thefts in those stores too and we just aren't hearing about it...

Banning reusable bags from being brought on a store sales floor is for the exact same reason many stores have a no backpacks policy. So people cannot stuff items into them and run out. Either these policies will get reversed or there will be a lot fewer stores around as the thieves are just using these rules and policies more and more to their advantage to increase the amount of theft they engage in.

The other option would be to not allow the reusable bags to be filled while on the sales floor but I have seen a lot of stores try that in CA and nobody will follow that rule (frankly, even I won't follow it). If you go in with a reusable bag it makes sense that you shop into it (instead of a hand basket).

It is just like before 2020 if you walked into a bank wearing a mask. That was not allowed. That is what bank robbers do. Someone did that and it called attention to them the second they walked into the bank. If you are an honest customer who does not plan to engage in theft, you do not need to bring a reusable bag or backpack into a retail store. You can leave it at the door or leave it in your vehicle/pocket and keep it there during the duration of your shopping. I suppose the other option would be that you require the customer to use a cart or basket while in the store and the reusable bag is stored on a little shelf attached to the cart/basket, folded or something, and cannot be taken out of there until checkout. Then if someone is filling a bag on the sales floor they can be easily watched/identified.

Then again I have also seen stores stop offering hand baskets for this same reason- people fill them and run out the door with items...

But for a drugstore like Walgreens there aren't many customers and many don't buy much. When someone shows up to Walgreens and starts grabbing items like they are on Supermarket Sweep (regardless how they collect the items- a reusable bag, cart, coat, basket), that is probably a sign they are a shoplifter.
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