Screw Reparations
2023-05-01 01:38:21 UTC
That's to keep niggers from stealing it all!
by security and surveilled by video cameras. Its locked behind an
impenetrable glass fortress, far out of sight and out of reach, especially
to those who need it most. And even when you make it past all the gates,
barricades and blood-red warning signs, theres only so much left to pick
over, anyway.
Accessing baby formula shouldnt feel this punishing, but thats exactly
how its been described at the College Avenue Safeway in Rockridge, a
small Oakland enclave where the average home is valued at $1.7 million,
according to Zillow.
This is wild, said Ursula Lindsey as she eyed a $40 container of
Enfamil. It feels prohibitive. This is the first time shes shopped for
the coveted baby formula in person, but she told SFGATE shell never come
back here for it again.
A few months ago, Safeway, which is owned by the multibillion-dollar
Albertsons grocery store company, installed loss-prevention measures that
some East Bay residents have described as carceral. According to company
representatives, they were implemented to combat rising theft a claim
widely echoed by media outlets and state lobbyists over the past year.
In order to leave, customers now have to navigate past a winding gray
barricade and scan their receipts at the self-checkout area, a procedure
that local Reddit users have denounced as jarring, hostile and
alienating.
When SFGATE visited the store earlier this month, reporters found that
formula wasnt the only necessity behind bars, either. Gallons of
detergent like Tide and Gain were shielded behind sliding plastic doors
that loudly screeched whenever you pulled them aside. Other basics like
batteries and razors were locked away, too. The hard liquor was also
behind a massive glass case, along with the stores arguably more top-
shelf wines.
Safeway representatives declined to say how many stores in the Bay Area
have these new barricades and receipt scanners, but asserted that theyre
necessary to curtail escalating theft and provide a welcoming
environment for the community.
Rampant shoplifting continues to be on the rise at alarming levels at
retailers across the Bay Area, the company said in a written statement.
We have increased our investments in security measures in stores
throughout the region to help combat this ongoing issue. Those updates
include operational changes to the front end of select stores to deter
shoplifting.
When asked about the locked-up baby formula, a Safeway representative
replied, Like other retailers, theft is an ongoing challenge.
When SFGATE asked the Oakland Police Department to provide data on the
rate of thefts at Oakland grocery stores, representatives shared a
citywide crime report compiled in 2022 that spans the last five years.
According to the document, more than 1,300 instances of theft were
reported at commercial properties like shops, offices and grocery stores
that year a 76% increase compared to 2021. It appears that theft at
small stores and grocery stores has increased in the last three years both
within the City of Oakland and nationwide as well, an OPD burglary unit
lieutenant told SFGATE via email.
Though the number of reported commercial thefts has gone slightly up and
down over the years, the number has increased by 120% since 2018,
according to the department.
Stores like 7-Eleven, Walgreens, Safeway and liquor stores appear to be
targeted most, Oakland police said, with alcohol, cigarettes, food, soda,
cash and lottery tickets the most frequently stolen items.
Last year, the National Retail Federation lobbying group said that San
Francisco and Oakland had the second-highest rate of theft among
organized crime rings in 2021 and 2020, just behind Los Angeles.
According to their analysis, some of the most commonly stolen items were
infant formula, baby toys and detergent, as well as simple pleasures like
meat, candy and alcohol.
Rachel Michelin, president and CEO of another lobbying group, the
California Retailers Association, says that theft has been an ongoing and
worsening issue over the past three years. This is very real, she told
SFGATE, explaining that shes seen multiple instances of theft caught on
video by customers and retailers. Representatives from Safeway happen to
be CRA board members, along with representatives from other big-box
retailers like Walgreens and CVS, according to CRAs website.
At the end of the day, its the people who live in these communities in
these neighborhoods who are really the victims because theyre going to
either lose access to their stores because theyll close or theyre not
able to shop in a safe environment because people are constantly coming in
to steal, she said.
San Francisco politicians and corporate talking heads have been battling
over this narrative that the Bay Area is a lawless hellscape for
years. A handful of major retailers have pointed to shoplifting as a
reason for closing stores, and the media has only regurgitated this
rhetoric, further amplifying the conversation surrounding retail theft.
Despite the frenzy, theft appears to have little influence over store
closures.
When Walgreens planned to close five locations in San Francisco in 2021,
local politicians pushed back on company claims that organized retail
crime was the culprit. They are saying thats the primary reason, but I
also think when a place is not generating revenue, and when theyre
saturated SF 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 at the time.
Media reports have accepted without analysis Walgreens assertion that
its closing due to retail theft, wrote San Franciscos District 5
Supervisor, Dean Preston, in a 2021 Twitter thread. In it, he shared the
companys 2019 SEC filing, which states that Walgreens plans to close
approximately 200 locations in the United States as part of a cost
management program.
In December 2021, SFGATE also reported that CVS planned to shutter
multiple locations in San Francisco, but stated that the closures were
part of a broader plan to restrategize. CNN originally wrote that hundreds
of stores were closing due to too many overlapping locations and
shifting consumer buying patterns.
Two years later, the New York Times reported that James Kehoe, Walgreens
chief financial officer, admitted that blaming the closures on retail
theft was an exaggeration. Maybe we cried too much last year, he said in
a company earnings call, later adding that they probably overspent on
security measures.
Then, in March of this year, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the
Safeway near Fishermans Wharf was set to close amid economic struggles.
(The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate
newsrooms.) We continuously evaluate the performance of our stores, and
occasionally its necessary to close locations that arent meeting
financial expectations, a statement from the company read.
At the time, assistant store director Dermot Harris told SFGATE that there
were a lot of reasons for the closure, but it really boiled down to it
not making sense financially for us to remain open.
While Safeway representatives claim that loss-prevention measures are
necessary to keep stores afloat, it seems like many recent high-profile
closures were attributable to a mix of economic factors, according to
statements or filings from the companies themselves. The other argument
Safeway representatives made to SFGATE is that installing barricades and
security checkpoints will ultimately help make shoppers feel safe though
the customers that SFGATE spoke to disagreed.
Ben, a Berkeley resident who declined to give his last name, told SFGATE
that he never felt unsafe at the Rockridge location to begin with.
Honestly, I have had no personal safety issues related to thieves at this
or any other store, he said.
When Kezia Pearlman, a copywriter living in Rockridge, first saw the
receipt scanners and barricades, she just thought they were weird and
overblown. I think my initial reaction was, This is a bit much for a
Rockridge grocery store, she said. And I still feel that way. She
added that shes never felt unsafe at that particular location, and is
shocked by how afraid some Rockridge community members can be.
Other residents are much more critical of the environment that this
wealthy, majority-white neighborhoods Safeway fosters.
Bars evoke images of a prison, which is saying that all potential patrons
are also potential criminals, Dr. Ameer Hasan Loggins, a lecturer at
Stanford University and East Bay resident who shared a viral video of the
store, told SFGATE. He said that these sorts of installations are designed
to make people who are frequently criminalized feel unsafe.
In the case of Rockridge, its the same people who are made to feel the
most unwanted in that area Black folks and houseless folks, he said.
For those who dont fall into those two categories, for those who tend to
feel unsafe around Black folks, and for those suffering within a state of
houselessness, this new Safeway may make them feel safer, he continued.
Lindsey, the mother SFGATE spoke to, didnt think people should be
punished for stealing goods like Enfamil at all.
If they need to steal formula, they need formula, thats a basic need,
she said.
Aside from creating an inhospitable shopping experience, one Safeway
employee suggested that the new gates dont even prevent theft.
He explained that some people have used brute force to simply push them
aside. Even though they triggered the alarm system by doing this, the
security guards didnt intervene. He said hes also seen people get
confused at self-checkout and just leave Safeway with their paid
groceries. Even as an employee of the store, hes found the barricades to
be tiresome. He told SFGATE that if employees want to clock out and go
home, a clerk has to let them through the gates.
Its really odd, he said, calling the whole process strict.
When SFGATE went to the Rockridge store, it became clear that the receipt
scanner at self-checkout which is supposed to only let customers exit
the store after it confirms they have a receipt for paid goods is hardly
foolproof. Many customers easily bypassed it and left the self-checkout
area without showing proof of payment. While an alarm did go off at one
point, it was unclear where, and store representatives declined to say
whether someone shoplifting had triggered it.
At the Broadway location near Piedmont, SFGATE found there were even more
items locked away.
Health care products like Monistat, Azo and cleaning wipes were in a glass
case along with condoms and lubricant. So was all the baby formula. The
shelves were also noticeably empty compared to the Rockridge location:
detergent, deodorant, maxi pads and certain medications all appeared low
in stock. Though it was unclear why, a cashier said that people frequently
steal from this store it was a hustle, he said.
When SFGATE asked another employee about theft at a Safeway Pak n Save
location in Emeryville, he said that people stole from there every day.
Often, its just one person, he said, rather than the sort of highly
organized crime ring that lobbying groups sometimes like to portray as
running roughshod over the Bay Area. Theyre mostly stealing essentials,
like meat and medicine, he said.
Safeway declined to say how much it spent on increasing security at local
stores. Meanwhile, over the past year, food prices have skyrocketed by 8%
in the Bay Area. Its certainly possible theres a financial issue at
regional grocery stores but either way, its evident that corporations
are scapegoating cities like Oakland and San Francisco.
Safeway representatives saying that bars in their space are necessary to
prevent crime and keep the community safe speaks to the levels of
carcerality that they are leaning on and into, said Loggins. This is the
language of predictive policing. This is the logic of stop and frisk.
These are the norms of a carcerality.
<https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/safeway-oakland-hostile-anti-
theft-measures-17920035.php>