ABC7 News reporter Lyanne Melendez recorded someone swiping items off the shelves of a Walgreens in San Francisco and putting them into a large garbage bag as people, security included, stood a few feet away and took video of the theft in progress. As the person was leaving on a Lyft bike, a security guard, standing in the same aisle, weakly attempted to pull the bag away, but was unsuccessful.
Melendez claims that she has witnessed these same instances of theft three times at different Walgreens in San Francisco over the last year and a half. “Seventeen Walgreens over the last five years, almost every Gap retail outlet is gone, CVS is under assault,” San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safai said in response to this latest incident.
The video has since gone viral with some attributing shoplifting to recent closures in the area, citing a May 2021 article in the San Francisco Chronicle that specifically highlights a correlation between the two. However, others have argued that the decision to shutter a number of stores coincides with their announcement two years ago to close 200 locations.
While it may be evident that theft at Walgreens, specifically in San Francisco, has contributed to closures in the area, it doesn’t justify including Gap and CVS in the conversation. The clothing retail company revealed its plan to counteract struggling sales by moving towards a business model that leaned into e-commerce. This approach meant that Gap would be shuttering 30 percent of its stores, or about 350, by early 2024, with 75 percent of these closures occurring by the end of 2021 fiscal year.
In 2019, CVS announced that it would be closing 46 “underperforming” stores, two of which were in San Francisco. While the pharmacy may be “under assault,” the alleged rampant shoplifting in San Francisco hasn’t forced the company to close as many of its locations as Walgreens.
