Welcome to the dystopian reality of San Francisco, where Walgreens stores are forced to chain up their frozen food aisles to curb the daily onslaught of shoplifters, emboldened by liberal soft-on-crime policies.
NEW: The Walgreens at 16th/Geary in San Francisco has chained up the freezer section ⛓️
Workers said normally shoplifters clean out all the pizza and ice cream every night. They’re usually hit 20x a day. The whole store is virtually locked up. @KPIXtv
h/t @greenbergnation pic.twitter.com/lfFWmkLWdo
— Betty Yu (@bett_yu) July 18, 2023
Political commentator, Richie Greenberg, shared the dystopian footage online showing the chilling sight of a Walgreens frozen food aisle locked down with heavy-duty chains and padlocks. This isn’t a scene from some post-apocalyptic movie, folks. This is the absurd reality unfolding in liberal-run San Francisco.
Other store sections fare no better, with aisles of merchandise quarantined behind fortress-like plexiglass displays. Items such as hair dye, cosmetics, and over-the-counter drugs sit like museum pieces, accessible only by obtaining a key from a harried employee.
Reports from ground zero indicate that shoplifters blitz the store nearly 20 times daily, systematically stripping the shelves of frozen pizzas and ice cream each night. It’s as if a bizarre flash mob was choreographed by the kleptomaniac guild.
Greenberg paints a gloomy picture of a neighborhood in decay, morphing into a cesspool of graffiti, homelessness, and drug abuse. He lambasts the city officials in San Francisco’s City Hall for their negligent handling of the issue.
The aftermath of this crime spree? Store closures across the city, with at least five Walgreens locations having already shuttered due to this “organized retail crime.” Theft of items valued under $950 are treated as misdemeanors in California – a policy that critics argue incentivizes such criminal activity. The result is an exodus of businesses from the city, with even local food halls like La Cocina closing their doors due to the open-air illicit activities that are driving away customers.
Yet, in this upside-down world, San Francisco Assemblymember Dean Preston recently announced his intentions to introduce legislation prohibiting armed security guards from using their firearms in self-defense situations. This, just a month after a security officer had to use his weapon to neutralize a suspected shoplifter.
With cities like San Francisco and Oakland ranking second only to Los Angeles in the impact of theft on retailers according to a 2022 National Retail Federation survey, one can’t help but question the efficacy of the progressive crime policies currently in place. The fact that Walgreens has to chain up its frozen food aisle is telling enough of the crime-infested state the city is in.
