When Did the Safeway in the San Francisco Mission Turn Into Dangerway?
Or is it Theftway? This year there have often been robberies in the store while I’m there or shortly before I got there.
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It wasn't like this until the past year or so.
There were two times in recent months where I’ve seen people out of the corner of my eye running behind me carrying armloads of stuff as they sprint for the door at my local Safeway.
Often I’ll talk with the cashier or security guard to get the story about what happened.
Two or three weeks ago, the security guard told me that on that day, they had a total of 5 separate thefts in the store where one or more guys would come in, load up a hand basket or a shopping cart, fill it up with whatever they were looking for, and then run out of the store.
5 separate thefts across 5–6 hours in 1 Safeway location in a single day.
WTF?
Only a few days after that, the security guard described a couple of guys who walked into the back of the store — the non-public area where all the inventory is kept — and proceeded to load up a shopping cart with eight 12-packs of beer. They then ran out through the front part of the store and into the parking lot with the beer.
Security guards at this Safeway are not armed, and they are specifically instructed to not try to stop thieves. That makes sense.
I’ve seen the SF police at this Safeway a number of times, but by the time the police have been called and can arrive, the thieves are long gone.
The photo at the top of the article is from two nights ago. When I walked into the store, the police were taking a statement from the security guard. I spoke with the guard for 10 minutes after I was done shopping.
He was depressed about the situation. It was only his second day working at this Safeway location.
He was particularly blown away by the fact that the guys that night who came in to rob the store got away with only a couple of armloads of toilet paper packages. He couldn’t believe that they were doing this for toilet paper.
This kind of thing has been going on for the last two or three years in Walgreens and CVS drugstores around San Francisco.
The law in San Francsico was changed several years back so that as long as the value of what is stolen is less than $1000, the theft is only a misdemeanor . . . and that’s only if they get caught.
In other words, there's not much downside for the thieves even if they are caught.
So the sheer level of theft — I hesitate to just call it shoplifting; this is far more brazen and aggressive than the term “shoplifting” seems to cover — caused Walgreens to close five retail locations in San Francisco.
It just didn’t make economic sense for Walgreens to keep those five SF locations open given what the ongoing torrent of theft must have been costing them.
It’s hard for me to imagine that Safeway corporate managers are going to decide that it makes sense to keep this Safeway location open if the store is constantly having to endure this level of theft . . . along with the risk to employees and to customers.
I don’t know what the answer is here.
It can’t make sense to have armed guards there at the door who are going to be authorized to use their guns and shoot at thieves.
It also can’t make sense for companies like Safeway and Walgreens and CVS to keep neighborhood locations open when they are daily — daily — victims of brazen thefts like these.
Thoughts?
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