May 26, 2021
Back in 2014, Proposition 47 reclassified nonviolent thefts as misdemeanors if the stolen good were worth less than $950.
The move has apparently emboldened the thieves.
At a board of supervisors hearing last week, representatives from Walgreens said that thefts at its stores in San Francisco had made business untenable.
“The cost of business and shoplifting led Walgreens to shut 17 locations in San Francisco in the past five years — an “unpopular and difficult decision,” Jason Cunningham, regional vice president for pharmacy and retail operations in California and Hawaii, said at the hearing. The company still has 53 stores in the city.
Theft in Walgreens’ San Francisco stores is four times the average for stores elsewhere in the country, and the chain spends 35 times more on security guards in the city than elsewhere, Cunningham said.