5 ms·

You seem to be hinting at interesting things here but its hard to follow, the writing feels like a disjointed short hand with unstated context that requires exp

You seem to be hinting at interesting things here but its hard to follow, the writing feels like a disjointed short hand with unstated context that requires experience to unpack. What are "those empty Walgreens shelves", not having been there I don't know what you mean. Further, SF was not unique in experiencing that. I experienced it in North Carolina and Utah. What do you mean "squalor that is not that real?", what is the "context from mid-atlantic cities" and how is that relevant or informative to SF in particular? What is obvious when you leave? Where did you go and what did you experience?

flurben 6y ago
I agree, linguistically that comment borders on gibberish.
- dang 6y ago
  Please don't be rude in comments here, and please don't pile on. digitaltrees' reply gives vmception a nice invitation to expand, which would benefit all of us. Swipes like the one in your comment unfortunately have the opposite effect on conversation. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - flurben 6y ago
    My bad, I didn't realize this was one of those types of places.
    - Google234 6y ago
      If you don’t like hanging out in a cordial place, head to 4chan.
    - dang 6y ago
      Hard to know exactly what you mean, but you might be misreading our intent here. The intention is to optimize the site for curiosity: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=curiosity%20optimiz%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor.... We've learned a lot about how to do that over the years. Swipes lead to flames, flames tend to spread, and that whole approach to internet discussion is definitely not good for curiosity.
  - muzaffarpur 6y ago
    @dang Transfer me your super powers.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- brian_cunnie 6y ago
  The empty Walgreen's shelves can be seen at the Walgreen's on the corner of Eddy and Van Ness Streets. People come in & take whatever they want because they know Walgreen's has a "no contact" policy (they won't stop you). They shoplift everything. And Walgreen's doesn't rush to re-stock. There are a lot of homeless and drug addicts in that area, but I don't know firsthand if they're the shoplifters. I spoke to a police sergeant at the Walgreen's at Broadway and Polk, and he said it's pretty bad, and that even he has a hard time getting the shoplifters to stop.
  - albacur 6y ago
    > The empty Walgreen's shelves can be seen at the Walgreen's on the corner of Eddy and Van Ness Streets. It won't be a problem much longer – that location is going to be shut down permanently. Shoplifting has been a problem here even before Covid. Shoplifters know the law (<$950 is a misdemeanor), they know the police likely won't make an arrest, and even if they did, they know our DA likely won't prosecute.
  - digitaltrees 6y ago
    Seems like a really simple solution, revert drug stores and retail to the old behind the counter model that dominated in the 1800-1900s. You walk in, go to the counter and ask for for specific products rather than being self serve. As a few kiosks to order and a few pick up windows; that would be significantly cheaper than losing this much product from shop lifting or closing stores.
albacur 6y ago
It might require the added context of living here. San Francisco has one of the highest property crime rates in the United States [1], and Walgreens is a popular target of shoplifters, who regularly clear out entire shelves of merchandise. The company hasn't come out and said it, but some believe that rampant shoplifting is a reason why eight Walgreens locations in the city have been permanently closed [2]. [1] https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-ranks-high-in-property-crime-while-it-ranks-14439369.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-ra... [2] https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/Rampant-shoplifting-leads-to-another-Walgreens-15654730.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/Rampa...
- temp667 6y ago
  I have a family member who works at walgreens. The theft is incredible. In the bay area and particularly SF this is not one or two candy bars a week theft. In SF, if you stop a shoplifter and they are hurt, if they are in a protected class etc, it's game over for you as an employee and possibly the store. Even if you stop someone, even if police come and arrest, DA is never going to prosecute. If they do prosecute, its a misdemeanor. It's pretty wild the first time you see it. The clerks know who is coming in to steal. The stats above are from 2016. 2020 is worse, and much / most of the property crime goes unreported. If walgreens reported every shoplifting incident the numbers would be nuts.
  - part1of2 6y ago
    I bet prices just go up store-wide to cover, and even higher on items where the cost is more asymmetric (prescriptions)
    - tomcam 6y ago
      No. They just close the stores.
    - temp667 6y ago
      For sure. But pharmacy is very competitive and at some point it's a losing game. For example - Walgreen runs about about a 4% margin and profit runs about $4 billion (all very rough numbers). The problem with theft is that its a total loss so it can really chop into margins - these are shelves that you build a supply chain and staff to stock and then get zero. Someone walks in with a backpack and just fills it full (maybe 50 - 100 individual items). Meanwhile you have 20 customers buying a few items (1-5). So you sell 100 items at 104% of all in cost (4% positive margin) and 100 walk out the door (if only the knapsack guy steals) at 0% of cost. Your margin is negative immediately (-40%+). Walgreens actually has budgets for theft store managers try to work with in (pretty high ones actually). But theft the way it happens in SF - you need to understand there are no consequence, the only folks to get in trouble would be employees trying to stop it. It also drives away customers you do want (older people filing scrips will go to what are perceived as safer locations) and moves other sales to online / delivery etc. They are robbed while TV crews are filming about robberies :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FmN4e1fNUo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FmN4e1fNUo SF talks a lot of crap about Amazon, but if amazon offers a safe / delivery to your garage / car / inside door pharmacy service it could be game over for a lot of players.
lacker 6y ago
The author is referring to the rise of crime and homelessness in San Francisco. The Walgreens comment is referring to how several Walgreens are shutting down in San Francisco, partially because they have been unable to stop shoplifting. https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Another-San-Francisco-Walgreens-is-closing-15659279.php https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Another-San-Francisco... Many San Francisco residents are very opposed to any language that smacks of anti-homelessness - arguably anti-homeless language is promoting systematic racism - which encourages a certain crypticness in commenting.
- vmception 6y ago
  Thanks for elaborating, for others. Yes, the residents enable the squalor and I have no better solutions to offer them, but I am able perceive that the collective opinion of the residents is a byproduct of a largely apathetic transient population that masquerades as a progressive movement, while not needing to live with the results. I can recognize that it is incapable of creating a more collaborative and sanitary urban environment, and that's just not worth paying for.

flurben 6y ago

I agree, linguistically that comment borders on gibberish.

dang 6y ago
Please don't be rude in comments here, and please don't pile on. digitaltrees' reply gives vmception a nice invitation to expand, which would benefit all of us. Swipes like the one in your comment unfortunately have the opposite effect on conversation. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- flurben 6y ago
  My bad, I didn't realize this was one of those types of places.
  - Google234 6y ago
    If you don’t like hanging out in a cordial place, head to 4chan.
  - dang 6y ago
    Hard to know exactly what you mean, but you might be misreading our intent here. The intention is to optimize the site for curiosity: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=curiosity%20optimiz%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor.... We've learned a lot about how to do that over the years. Swipes lead to flames, flames tend to spread, and that whole approach to internet discussion is definitely not good for curiosity.
- muzaffarpur 6y ago
  @dang Transfer me your super powers.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
brian_cunnie 6y ago
The empty Walgreen's shelves can be seen at the Walgreen's on the corner of Eddy and Van Ness Streets. People come in & take whatever they want because they know Walgreen's has a "no contact" policy (they won't stop you). They shoplift everything. And Walgreen's doesn't rush to re-stock. There are a lot of homeless and drug addicts in that area, but I don't know firsthand if they're the shoplifters. I spoke to a police sergeant at the Walgreen's at Broadway and Polk, and he said it's pretty bad, and that even he has a hard time getting the shoplifters to stop.
- albacur 6y ago
  > The empty Walgreen's shelves can be seen at the Walgreen's on the corner of Eddy and Van Ness Streets. It won't be a problem much longer – that location is going to be shut down permanently. Shoplifting has been a problem here even before Covid. Shoplifters know the law (<$950 is a misdemeanor), they know the police likely won't make an arrest, and even if they did, they know our DA likely won't prosecute.
- digitaltrees 6y ago
  Seems like a really simple solution, revert drug stores and retail to the old behind the counter model that dominated in the 1800-1900s. You walk in, go to the counter and ask for for specific products rather than being self serve. As a few kiosks to order and a few pick up windows; that would be significantly cheaper than losing this much product from shop lifting or closing stores.

albacur 6y ago

It might require the added context of living here. San Francisco has one of the highest property crime rates in the United States [1], and Walgreens is a popular target of shoplifters, who regularly clear out entire shelves of merchandise. The company hasn't come out and said it, but some believe that rampant shoplifting is a reason why eight Walgreens locations in the city have been permanently closed [2]. [1] https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-ranks-high-in-property-crime-while-it-ranks-14439369.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-ra... [2] https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/Rampant-shoplifting-leads-to-another-Walgreens-15654730.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/Rampa...

temp667 6y ago
I have a family member who works at walgreens. The theft is incredible. In the bay area and particularly SF this is not one or two candy bars a week theft. In SF, if you stop a shoplifter and they are hurt, if they are in a protected class etc, it's game over for you as an employee and possibly the store. Even if you stop someone, even if police come and arrest, DA is never going to prosecute. If they do prosecute, its a misdemeanor. It's pretty wild the first time you see it. The clerks know who is coming in to steal. The stats above are from 2016. 2020 is worse, and much / most of the property crime goes unreported. If walgreens reported every shoplifting incident the numbers would be nuts.
- part1of2 6y ago
  I bet prices just go up store-wide to cover, and even higher on items where the cost is more asymmetric (prescriptions)
  - tomcam 6y ago
    No. They just close the stores.
  - temp667 6y ago
    For sure. But pharmacy is very competitive and at some point it's a losing game. For example - Walgreen runs about about a 4% margin and profit runs about $4 billion (all very rough numbers). The problem with theft is that its a total loss so it can really chop into margins - these are shelves that you build a supply chain and staff to stock and then get zero. Someone walks in with a backpack and just fills it full (maybe 50 - 100 individual items). Meanwhile you have 20 customers buying a few items (1-5). So you sell 100 items at 104% of all in cost (4% positive margin) and 100 walk out the door (if only the knapsack guy steals) at 0% of cost. Your margin is negative immediately (-40%+). Walgreens actually has budgets for theft store managers try to work with in (pretty high ones actually). But theft the way it happens in SF - you need to understand there are no consequence, the only folks to get in trouble would be employees trying to stop it. It also drives away customers you do want (older people filing scrips will go to what are perceived as safer locations) and moves other sales to online / delivery etc. They are robbed while TV crews are filming about robberies :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FmN4e1fNUo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FmN4e1fNUo SF talks a lot of crap about Amazon, but if amazon offers a safe / delivery to your garage / car / inside door pharmacy service it could be game over for a lot of players.

lacker 6y ago

The author is referring to the rise of crime and homelessness in San Francisco. The Walgreens comment is referring to how several Walgreens are shutting down in San Francisco, partially because they have been unable to stop shoplifting. https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Another-San-Francisco-Walgreens-is-closing-15659279.php https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Another-San-Francisco... Many San Francisco residents are very opposed to any language that smacks of anti-homelessness - arguably anti-homeless language is promoting systematic racism - which encourages a certain crypticness in commenting.

vmception 6y ago
Thanks for elaborating, for others. Yes, the residents enable the squalor and I have no better solutions to offer them, but I am able perceive that the collective opinion of the residents is a byproduct of a largely apathetic transient population that masquerades as a progressive movement, while not needing to live with the results. I can recognize that it is incapable of creating a more collaborative and sanitary urban environment, and that's just not worth paying for.