{"id":24670,"date":"2023-01-06T22:25:10","date_gmt":"2023-01-07T06:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=24670"},"modified":"2023-01-06T22:25:12","modified_gmt":"2023-01-07T06:25:12","slug":"walgreens-exec-admits-it-may-have-overblown-threat-of-retail-theft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/01\/06\/walgreens-exec-admits-it-may-have-overblown-threat-of-retail-theft\/","title":{"rendered":"Walgreens exec admits it may have overblown threat of retail theft"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/author\/rachel-swan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rachel Swan<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jan. 5, 2023Updated: Jan. 5, 2023  (SFChronicle.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\" id=\"1-image-21617721\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.hdnux.com\/photos\/01\/22\/35\/60\/21617721\/16\/1200x0.jpg\" alt=\"A reflection of pedestrians crossing the street on the Walgreens window on Friday, October 22, 2021, in San Francisco, Calif.\"\/><figcaption>1of2A reflection of pedestrians crossing the street on the Walgreens window on Friday, October 22, 2021, in San Francisco, Calif.Constanza Hevia H., Freelance \/ Special to The Chronicle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\" id=\"2-image-21617720\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.hdnux.com\/photos\/01\/22\/35\/60\/21617720\/7\/1200x0.jpg\" alt=\"A customer is seen in the Walgreens at Cesar Chavez and Mission streets before it closed in November.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><\/li><li><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A top Walgreens executive conceded Thursday that pharmacy chain brass may have exaggerated the threat of organized retail theft, a flash point in a stinging criminal justice debate that helped&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/election\/article\/What-Chesa-Boudin-s-recall-means-for-San-17226656.php\">electrify the recall<\/a>&nbsp;of former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMaybe we cried too much last year,\u201d Walgreens Chief Financial Officer James Kehoe said in an earnings call, during which he acknowledged that losses from \u201cshrinkage\u201d \u2014 a term for merchandise vanishing from store shelves, usually because somebody stole it \u2014 had become more manageable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While inventory amounting to 3.5% of the drugstore chain\u2019s total sales vanished last year, this year\u2019s losses seemed to stabilize, Kehoe said, hovering closer to the \u201cmid twos.\u201d He noted, further, that Walgreens had beefed up private security patrols in its stores, which proved \u201cto be largely ineffective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead, the company will rely more on law enforcement.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2023\/01\/05\/walgreens-may-have-overstated-theft-concerns.html\">&nbsp;CNBC first reported<\/a>&nbsp;Kehoe\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Data released by the San Francisco Police Department in October 2021&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/Is-shoplifting-forcing-Walgreens-to-cut-back-in-16536960.php\">did not support Walgreens\u2019 claim<\/a>&nbsp;that unchecked theft had forced it to close five stores. On average, the ill-fated stores had recorded two shoplifting incidents a month from 2018 to their shuttering dates in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Retail theft \u2014 particularly at Walgreens and other similar stores \u2014 ignited fear and anger at a moment when San Francisco seemed to be retreating from the progressive reforms instituted by Boudin, who pledged to fight mass incarceration and prosecute police officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Viral videos of drugstore capers ricocheted on social media, including one of a man stuffing items into a garbage bag at a Hayes Valley Walgreens that closed in 2021. Although some&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/deanpreston\/status\/1448378566681399298\">city leaders raised doubts<\/a>&nbsp;about Walgreens\u2019 messaging, and a growing perception of lawlessness in downtown San Francisco, officials also faced mounting pressure to crack down on petty crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last month, San Francisco police officers quietly staked out stores,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/crime\/article\/S-F-police-are-secretly-staking-out-stores-like-17659100.php\">including pharmacies and apparel outlets,<\/a>&nbsp;to stop and arrest suspected shoplifters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A spokesperson for Walgreens declined to elaborate on Kehoe\u2019s statements Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some observers of the retail sector who spoke with The Chronicle on Thursday expressed bafflement and skepticism that theft at Walgreens had abated, at a moment when representatives from other stores are imploring city officials for more police officers. At least one expert saw the numbers as a possible sign of success for Walgreens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tony Sheppard, a senior director at the loss prevention software company ThinkLP, said that in conversations with hundreds of retail clients, he\u2019s found that rampant plundering of merchandise \u201cis still a very concerning issue.\u201d He\u2019s become more optimistic with the recent passage of the federal INFORM Act, which requires e-commerce marketplaces to verify high-volume sellers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Professor Kirthi Kalyanam, executive director of the Retail Management Institute at Santa Clara University, saw two possible interpretations of Kehoe\u2019s statements: either the company had overestimated the amount of shrinkage it would see last year, or it had correctly predicted its losses \u2014 but managed to stem them with shrewd security measures. If the latter is true, then other San Francisco businesses might consider replicating Walgreens\u2019 methods, Kalyanam said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nonetheless, San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safa\u00ed, who has made retail theft a political priority, said he could see why a Walgreens executive might downplay the impact of theft on an earnings call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is a national audience of investors, and they\u2019re trying to build confidence that their stores are safe and secure,\u201d Safa\u00ed said, adding that Kehoe\u2019s rhetoric on Thursday sharply contrasts \u201cthe reality down on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He cited a letter that representatives of Safeway sent to Mayor London Breed and the Board of Supervisors at the start of the holiday shopping season, urging swift action on the shoplifting and flash mob-style heists that were devastating business. In October, a security guard at a Safeway store in the Excelsior was shot and wounded while confronting an alleged shoplifter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such incidents rattled Safa\u00ed, whose district includes the Excelsior neighborhood. Despite Kehoe\u2019s upbeat forecasts, merchants throughout San Francisco are lining up to hire off-duty police officers, the supervisor said: \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing on the ground is something we need to get ahead of, and get control over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan<\/em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/author\/rachel-swan\/\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Written By <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/author\/rachel-swan\/\" target=\"_blank\">Rachel Swan<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SFChronicle\/\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rachelswan\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rachel Swan is a breaking news and enterprise reporter. She joined the Chronicle in 2015 after stints at several alt weekly newspapers. Born in Berkeley, she graduated from Cal with a degree in rhetoric and is now raising two daughters in El Cerrito.VIEW COMMENTS<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/img\/logos\/black\/logo.svg\" alt=\"San Francisco Chronicle Homepage - Site Logo\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/img\/core\/hearst_newspapers_logo.svg\" alt=\"HEARST newspapers logo\">\u00a92023 Hearst<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rachel Swan Jan. 5, 2023Updated: Jan. 5, 2023 (SFChronicle.com) A top Walgreens executive conceded Thursday that pharmacy chain brass may have exaggerated the threat of organized retail theft, a flash point in a stinging criminal justice debate that helped&nbsp;electrify the recall&nbsp;of former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin. \u201cMaybe we&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/01\/06\/walgreens-exec-admits-it-may-have-overblown-threat-of-retail-theft\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24671,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24670\/revisions\/24671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}