[HN Gopher] Analysis of Walgreens' stated reasoning for closing ...
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Analysis of Walgreens' stated reasoning for closing SF stores
Author : benzible
Score : 26 points
Date : 2021-10-15 19:06 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.sfgate.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.sfgate.com)
| leoh wrote:
| Walgreen's is not in the business of morality. They are in the
| business of making money. Walgreen's could say just about
| anything they wanted about closing up shop in San Francisco and
| it doesn't really make good business sense for them to say
| something provocative. It seems to me they're telling the truth.
|
| On the other hand, the San Francisco DA is acting in a highly
| defensive manner. It's pretty offensive of them and it's pretty
| clear they're doing a bad job.
|
| Worse, the San Francisco DA is helping create a false dichotomy
| between safety and compassion. I think both are possible; the SF
| DA, however, does not seem competent enough to offer either.
| taurath wrote:
| Walgreens could easily respond by putting up historical store
| revenues and profits that show year over year increasing tear
| from each store they closed.
|
| The DA put up numbers showing that in the past 2 years thefts
| have gone down. I'll for now trust the one that puts up the
| numbers.
| elgernon wrote:
| check the local daily news, man
| mywittyname wrote:
| It was also decided to not respond to shoplifting reports
| under $950, which may be the cause of the 'reduction in
| reported larceny'. People may have stopped reporting it.
| finite_jest wrote:
| Didn't they change the definition of what counts as "theft"
| though? Also, wouldn't less people bother to report theft if
| they know it probably won't be prosecuted?
| GaryTang wrote:
| > "They are saying that's the primary reason, but I also think
| when a place is not generating revenue, and when they're
| saturated -- S.F. has a lot of Walgreens locations all over the
| city -- so I do think that there are other factors that come into
| play," Mayor London Breed told reporters Wednesday.
|
| https://youtu.be/2jrnhaLzCqA
|
| There are dozens of videos of theft in SF Walgreens captured on
| YouTube. Can someone explain to the mayor that your revenue is
| going to decrease when criminals are walking out with garbage
| bags full of merchandise?
|
| Per typical, SF Democrats are trying to cover up their
| underreporting of crimes.
| just_steve_h wrote:
| The plural of "anecdote" is not "data."
| robbedpeter wrote:
| So stores should just accept being stolen from, creating
| highly unsafe situations for employees and customers, in the
| middle of economic conditions already hurting profit and
| supply chains?
|
| Or maybe the stores should hire private security,
| sufficiently armed to deter theft? That's probably a minimum
| cost of $500k per year for wages and insurance and licensing.
|
| I'm truly curious what the endgame is with this line of
| bleeding heart absurdity.
| taurath wrote:
| A society where people don't need to steal to survive, if
| you are truly asking.
|
| A Walgreens takes money from a community and gives it to
| their shareholders. They pay minimum wage. The desperation
| people have across this country should be responded to with
| policies that lessen desperation, rather than jailing
| people like we have been for the last 60 years - 25% of the
| prisoners in the world are in the USA which has 5% of the
| population.
|
| If you want people to not steal food, give them food. If
| you want people to not be homeless, give them a home. If
| you want people in prison, prevent the hungry from eating
| and the homeless from finding a home. It costs a lot more
| to hold a prisoner than providing food or shelter by other
| means.
| elgernon wrote:
| the article is right, it's all about narrative, and these
| "optics" make SF politicians look bad
| SV_BubbleTime wrote:
| > When comparing 2021 larceny theft figures to pre-pandemic 2019
| figures, one will find that reports of theft are actually down.
| From Jan. 1, 2021, to Oct. 10, 2021, there have been 21,842
| reports of larceny theft, and there were 31,958 reports over the
| same period in 2019, which is a 31.6% decrease.
|
| Ok, but this might be very misleading. Wallgreen's chief
| complaint is that the laws were changed and police no longer
| respond to theft under $950. Encouraging small incidence but
| relatively safe repeated thefts.
|
| So wouldn't it make complete sense that larceny numbers where
| police were called, an arrest was made, and a conviction secured
| would drop if police were instructed to respond only to larger
| crimes?
|
| If anything I would expect a larger decrease if Walgreen's is
| correct.
|
| Not saying this was any plan to "decrease crime by under
| reporting" or that I can prove the videos I've seen of carefree
| shoplifters weren't happening previous to the law changes. Just
| that this might not be the point they are intending to make.
| mc32 wrote:
| It would also be useful to know what the average haul of the
| thefts pre-pandemic and now.
| taurath wrote:
| Walgreens has the data on this so they can choose to put it
| up, if they care about people believing them.
| gota wrote:
| This, I think, is the core issue. The typical theft before
| the changes could have been of trivially low values. As soon
| as people know that the strongest negative incentives only
| kick in after a total value (e.g. 1000 USD) they may start to
| "optimize" for that.
|
| I mean - if a person would shoplift item A; they may reason
| that there is very little additional negative incentive to
| not steal B, C...as well - to get closer to that threshold.
|
| This makes sense even if you assume that thefts of total
| value under the threshold are being always reported (as
| commented elsewhere here). Lower numbers of instances, higher
| value of theft.
|
| Then again, maybe there are underlying mechanisms in the
| motivations of shoplifting that make this completely wrong.
| I'd accept and appreciate the input of someone with expertise
| in this subject
| jet_32951 wrote:
| Walgreen's are not perceiving local support for their stores.
| They are not alone. There is a Walgreen's in the Castro and it
| is likely from my reading they share a lot of the complaints in
| this article [0] which says law enforcement is no longer to be
| counted on to help.
|
| [0]https://www.ebar.com/news/latest_news/302626
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(page generated 2021-10-15 23:04 UTC)