Too many thefts: Walgreens closes 17 pharmacies in San Francisco
A stone's throw from the Silicon Valley of the super rich is the little hell of San Francisco.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, 17 Walgreens pharmacy locations have closed their doors in San Francisco in the past five years. At least ten stores in the city have closed since 2019. The cause is theft and security problems that are now out of control.
Like many other retailers, Walgreens blames Proposition 47 , the rule that lowered theft penalties below $ 950 and triggered a dramatic increase in shoplifting across the metropolitan area in recent years. Prop. 47 is supported by the reformers of criminal justice and the democratic establishment, that is, by the same who have promoted the cutting of funds to the police forces.
The combination of the two factors has allowed professional shoplifters, homeless people and drug addicts to easily trade the system and steal items below the monetary threshold from one shop to another with limited penalties.
Walgreens San Francisco supervisor Ahsha Safaí told the Chronicle that the situation was "out of control," adding:
“ People are afraid to enter these shops: the elderly, people with disabilities, children. It's happening blatantly ” .
The thefts at Walgreens in the city are four times the average of other stores across the country. The pharmacy chain spends 35 times more on security guards in the city than elsewhere , said Jason Cunningham, regional vice president of pharmacy and retail operations in California and Hawaii. Clearly, then, at some point, the chain decides to close the shops.
The cost of business and shoplifting is staggering for Walgreens. Despite having closed 17 stores, the company still has 53 open in the metropolitan area but could close more by the end of the year. For those who are not familiar with what a "Pharmacy" in the USA is, we remind you that here we are talking mostly about small supermarkets including a large pharmacy, so the loss of service is considerable
To address the widespread problem of shoplifting, a meeting was held on Thursday May 13 with other retailers, local police, District Attorney Chesa Boudin, and probation departments. The Chronicle said retailers at the hearing blamed "professional thieves instead of opportunistic shoplifters who may be driven by poverty."
The penalty for shoplifting is a "non-violent offense" with a maximum penalty of 6 months, but in most cases, for simple shoplifting, the criminal is released on terms. R under $ 950 in stolen goods, there is also no danger of punishment for repeat offense.
Other retailers are likely to follow Walgreens' lead and leave town as it descends into socio-economic hell. The city will become Amazon's home delivery paradise, but hell for everyone else, with no commercial services. The paradise of the Dems (USA, but also on our side of the ocean) is hell for everyone else.
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The article Too many thefts: Walgreens closes 17 pharmacies in San Francisco comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/troppi-furti-walgreens-chiude-17-farmacie-a-san-francisco/ on Thu, 20 May 2021 09:00:09 +0000.