Tag Archives: Walgreens

Criminalizing A Business Decision

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If a local government creates an environment where it is unprofitable and dangerous to do business, businesses find other places to do business. That is basic common sense. However, not all of our elected leaders grasp this concept.

On Tuesday, The Western Journal reported:

Another pharmacy is leaving Chicago because of theft, and somehow, the villain of the story is not the people stealing from it.

The villain is apparently the business itself, which finally decided it had enough and decided to cut its losses.

According to a report from the Chicago Sun-Times, a Walgreens located at 8628 S. Cottage Grove Ave. in the crime-ridden area is set to close permanently on June 4.

Democratic Alderman William Hall joined residents outside the store Monday, where signs read “Senior Lives Matter” and “End Corporate Abandonment.”

“Walgreens should be charged with first-degree corporate abandonment,” Hall said. “It should be a crime the way they’re treating our elders. It should be a crime the way they’re treating our families.”

What crime should the Aldermen and Mayor be charged with for creating an environment where it is unsafe to operate a drug store?

The article concludes:

How dare a company refuse to be robbed daily and still be expected to operate as if nothing is wrong with the neighborhood? How dare it expect to turn a profit instead of functioning as a public utility for people who are either destroying the store or robbing it blind?

There is a deeper absurdity here that no amount of chanting can hide: There is very little inside a Walgreens that cannot be ordered online and delivered within a day or two, which means the physical store only exists if it can operate safely.

When it can’t, it disappears, and no amount of racism accusations can change that.

What is being demanded now amounts to forcing a business to remain in place so it can continue being exploited by the same conditions that made it unworkable.

It’s like telling a battered woman to stay in the relationship because leaving would inconvenience her abuser.

If Chicago leaders want stores like Walgreens to stay, they might start by addressing the theft and violence driving them out.

Arresting criminals and holding them accountable might solve the problem.

Policies Have Consequences

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Hot Air is reporting today that Target is cutting back its store hours in San Francisco in an effort to limit shoplifting.

The article reports:

Normal store hours are 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. They’re cutting back to 6 p.m. because, the company claims, “for more than a month, we’ve been experiencing a significant and alarming rise in theft and security incidents at our San Francisco stores.”

Only a month? Walgreens has closed 17 stores in San Francisco since 2016 because it didn’t pay to keep them open with so many locals taking the five-finger discount. Target’s new policy raises the ominous possibility that the problem is getting worse, which would make sense. With the pandemic all but over in the highly vaccinated Bay Area, more thieves may be out and about lately.

Read this post for background on San Francisco’s problem with shockingly brazen shoplifting. A state law that passed several years ago made it a misdemeanor to steal less than $950 worth of goods, a wrist-slap that’s encouraged repeat offenders. Go figure that three California cities (San Fran, L.A., and Sacramento) are among the top 10 in the United States for organized retail crime. Not all of the theft is organized, of course — sometimes it’s random homeless people or addicts acting alone — but a surprising amount is being driven by rings selling the stolen merchandise on the black market.

The article notes that the shoplifting problem in San Francisco has gotten so bad that the 7-Eleven on Drumm St. in the Financial District does business only through a metal door.

The article also notes:

SFPD’s Central Station reported auto burglaries skyrocketed 753% in May compared to the same time last year during lockdowns and they’re still up 75% compared to the same period in 2019…

“They don’t even care. They tell us what the hell are you going to do,” said [a] tourism operator who did not wish his business to be identified.

One family who did not wish to be identified showed KPIX 5 pictures they took as they witnessed thieves in action just before pulling into a parking lot on Embarcadero and Bay Street.

What is needed is a Mayor and City Council that will make shoplifting and theft unprofitable again. We know this will rapidly change the city because we saw it happen when Rudy Giuliani took over as Mayor of New York City. The turnaround was rapid and obvious. San Francisco needs a Mayor and City Council who understand broken windows theory.