No Walgreens For You

[tvguy]

Around me, Walgreens has bought out Rite-Aid.

At least here Rite Aid tends to be a much larger store physically with a larger inventory. I was half way between two Walgreens, but they closed one of them in January. CVS is just a creepy, dirty store.

 

[tvguy]

There aren't too many Rite-Aid locations around here, but they seem to have maintained the Thrifty ice cream manufacturing. There weren't too many Thrifty locations around here, and the ones I remember closed quickly after the Thrifty-Payless acquisition by Rite-Aid. However, I heard somewhere that they were generally pretty cheap - like a dime for a scoop?

I grew up with Thrifty and Payless. Thrifty was where you went when you were sick to get a prescription. Never had their ice cream, but I grew up in the 1960's and money was tight and my mom thought it was much cheaper to buy a half gallon of store brand ice cream than buy it by the scoop. I also remember they were always having to page someone to the ice cream counter because they never seemed to staff it.
Payless was where you bought snacks on sale. Canned peanuts and cashews and the like.....oh and Shasta sodas for 79 cents a case.
Most of the Thrifty locations here closed after they merged with Payless. All the Payless Locations I am familiar with are still operating, but as Rite Aid, however, almost all the original building was torn down and a new building built when it became Rite Aid.

 

[mousefan73]

This thread is making me wonder if I’m an idiot for actually paying for things

 

[bcla]

I grew up with Thrifty and Payless. Thrifty was where you went when you were sick to get a prescription. Never had their ice cream, but I grew up in the 1960's and money was tight and my mom thought it was much cheaper to buy a half gallon of store brand ice cream than buy it by the scoop. I also remember they were always having to page someone to the ice cream counter because they never seemed to staff it.
Payless was where you bought snacks on sale. Canned peanuts and cashews and the like.....oh and Shasta sodas for 79 cents a case.
Most of the Thrifty locations here closed after they merged with Payless. All the Payless Locations I am familiar with are still operating, but as Rite Aid, however, almost all the original building was torn down and a new building built when it became Rite Aid.

The thing I remember about Payless was their coupon book, which cost 10 cents. They would usually have one coupon for a free roll of hard candy and another one for a free comb. The comb was unbranded and the hard candy was similar in style to Life Savers Five Flavors, but off brand. These items were never available for regular sale.

 

[Moliphino]

At least here Rite Aid tends to be a much larger store physically with a larger inventory. I was half way between two Walgreens, but they closed one of them in January. CVS is just a creepy, dirty store.

Regional differences! Around me the CVSes are nice and the Walgreens are kinda sketchy.

 

[tvguy]

Regional differences! Around me the CVSes are nice and the Walgreens are kinda sketchy.

Both are sketchy here.

 

[bcla]

Regional differences! Around me the CVSes are nice and the Walgreens are kinda sketchy.

Depends. The city where I grew up still has the same two that have been there forever and previously as Longs Drugs stores before CVS bought them. One is in an older shopping center that's fairly well maintained. Parts of the shopping center were added on later, but this building with the CVS has been there for at least 50 years and is well maintained.

The other location is really odd. The parking lot is filled with potholes everywhere and when I go in to the store they don't seem to have many customers. I wouldn't say it's sketchy, but it's not necessarily as nice looking as the other location. As far as I can tell, the primary reason why it's still there is because of the pharmacy getting tons of business.

It's really random, as all stores are different. I've been to some that seem a little bit dated. Maybe in old buildings or needing updates. But sometimes the locations are great where it's nice having one in a touristy area compared to a lot of the overpriced convenience stores that one typically sees. There's CVS stores in San Francisco Fishermans Wharf, Anaheim about 5 minutes from the Disneyland entrance, or Stateline, Nevada next to Harrah's Casino. Those locations are nicely maintained.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Both our CVS and Walgreen’s are nice. Pharmacies are both terrible, though. CVS is never on time, and Walgreen’s is always out of stock. My sense is that the people working there try hard, but their hands are tied by being understaffed, and it’s not their fault if the products aren’t there. I give Walgreen’s a little more business because it’s an easIer in and out. I cannot, in my wildest dreams, imagine any shoplifters walking out with anything in plain view, with no one saying anything. I haven’t seen that happen around here - yet.

This thread reminded me that a week or two ago in Kohl’s, a store detective seemed to be following DH and I around the store. It was almost laughable how obvious it was. And I think there were two. I almost told them to go follow someone else, they were wasting their time with us! (Like we might risk our livelihoods stealing some crap from their store!) But even though they annoyed me, it was good to see them there. Back when I worked in a supermarket, loss prevention was huge, and it wasn’t unusual to see shoplifters tackled at the door when they were trying to steal meat or something.

 

[Colleen27]

Walgreens is closing stores due to shoplifting. This is a new one for me. Usually businesses close because their stores aren't profitable. I guess if customers aren't paying, then they're not profitable.

https://www.businessinsider.com/loc...greens-shoplifting-san-francisco-2021-10?op=1

I'm taking this one with a grain of salt. The stated reason might just be a way to apply some political pressure against the city's hands-off approach to petty crime. There's still a Walgreens about every other block through the heart of the city, including in the Tenderloin where presumably shoplifting would be the worst. In the walk from the BART station to our hotel this past weekend, we passed three of them. In the other direction, going to the bus, we passed two. And when I needed some ibuprofen after three 24,000 step days, it turned out that none of the five we'd already walked past were the closest location - the front desk clerk let me know that there was one just around the corner in yet another direction! I have a hard time believing even a city as densely populated as SF really has the customer base to support a Walgreens on every corner, or that the company would lose any business if customers had to go a block over to get to their closest location.

 

[Colleen27]

According to Walgreens theft in their SF stores is 4 times higher than the average of their other US stores. They pay 35% more for security for their SF stores.
Scratch that, that was from June, apparently now it's 5% more.

But is that because of increased security or simply higher wages? Retail jobs my daughter interviewed for out there seem to pay between 30 and 50% more than the same jobs in our area, and waitressing pays an insane 500% more (because SF doesn't allow sub-minimum wage pay for tipped workers, while in MI waitstaff usually makes $3-something an hour).

Walgreens security here in Michigan starts at $12/hour. So even the San Francisco minimum wage is 36% higher than they're paying here.

 

[bcla]

I'm taking this one with a grain of salt. The stated reason might just be a way to apply some political pressure against the city's hands-off approach to petty crime. There's still a Walgreens about every other block through the heart of the city, including in the Tenderloin where presumably shoplifting would be the worst. In the walk from the BART station to our hotel this past weekend, we passed three of them. In the other direction, going to the bus, we passed two. And when I needed some ibuprofen after three 24,000 step days, it turned out that none of the five we'd already walked past were the closest location - the front desk clerk let me know that there was one just around the corner in yet another direction! I have a hard time believing even a city as densely populated as SF really has the customer base to support a Walgreens on every corner, or that the company would lose any business if customers had to go a block over to get to their closest location.

None of the locations that are closing are in downtown though. San Francisco is kind of different than much of the Bay Area in that within residential areas, there are retail corridors every few blocks. All of the closing locations are in these areas, although anyone with a car might only need to travel a half mile to find the next one.

I don't even know if there's any political pressure than can be made against the city. There's nothing that prevents Walgreens from stopping shoplifters other than their worries about employees and bystanders getting injured and suing them. It's been noted that their corporate policy is to not resist. The City and County of San Francisco has nailed several large shoplifting rings, but their priority may not be against small time thieves who the store isn't even willing to stop when they have the chance.

 

[easyas123]

"This store loses $25,000 a day to shoplifting,” an SFPD officer told the Globe in lengthy, taped interviews conducted this week. “That’s $25,000 that walks out the door on average between 9 and 6 every day.”

Mayor London Breed challenged that narrative. She attributed the closings to demographic shifts and the Chronicle dutifully reported that “the five stores slated to close had fewer than two recorded shoplifting incidents a month on average since 2018” (while acknowledging that few stores bother to report a crime that now routinely goes unpunished)

https://californiaglobe.com/local/s...trict-to-close-amid-a-shoplifting-tidal-wave/

 

[bcla]

It's not Walgreens or CVS, but someone was charged with felony theft for allegedly pocketing about $40,000 over 100 times of going to the same Target store in San Francisco. Her alleged M.O. was to use self checkout, then just put in a penny to a dollar and then just walked out with the merch.

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2...ect-aziza-graves-san-francisco-self-checkout/​

According to the DA’s office, in nearly all of the alleged incidents at the Stonestown Target, Graves used self-checkout kiosks to scan merchandise and then paid one dollar in cash, or in some instances, one cent. Graves allegedly then would leave the kiosk without completing the transactions.​

 

[MillauFr]

Not sure why more stores don't move to the Amazon Go model where you have to scan your device prior to entering the store?

 

[kdonnel]

Not sure why more stores don't move to the Amazon Go model where you have to scan your device prior to entering the store?

When the Amazon Go stores first opened it was simply a matter of picking a few cheap items, going to the bathroom, changing your shirt, adding a hat, getting what you really wanted, lots of it, and walking out. You never got charged for the items picked after changing clothes.

I don’t know if the technology has improved.

On my one and only trip to an Amazon Go store it took almost an hour before I got a receipt and that receipt was missing one item.

 

[mom2rtk]

Not sure why more stores don't move to the Amazon Go model where you have to scan your device prior to entering the store?

Because not everyone has a device?

 

[Mysterian]

It's not Walgreens or CVS, but someone was charged with felony theft for allegedly pocketing about $40,000 over 100 times of going to the same Target store in San Francisco. Her alleged M.O. was to use self checkout, then just put in a penny to a dollar and then just walked out with the merch.

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2...ect-aziza-graves-san-francisco-self-checkout/​

According to the DA’s office, in nearly all of the alleged incidents at the Stonestown Target, Graves used self-checkout kiosks to scan merchandise and then paid one dollar in cash, or in some instances, one cent. Graves allegedly then would leave the kiosk without completing the transactions.​

That's amazing she even paid such a small amount. I was once waiting to use the self-checkout at Target, and noticed a number of store associates eyeing a guy with a huge cart of stuff. He scanned his stuff, didn't pay, then before he got out the door a man approached him, "Come with me, please". The girl running the self-check out said that this same customer has done this multiple times but never gets arrested.

 

[MillauFr]

Because not everyone has a device?

They can buy one if they want to shop there then. Just like at Costco you can't shop there unless you buy a membership card. They also check receipts which greatly cuts down on shoplifting and fraud. I'm sure the shoplifting supporters will scream foul but I don't care what that group thinks. They will have to find another store to shoplift at.

 

[JimMIA]

They can buy one if they want to shop there then. Just like at Costco you can't shop there unless you buy a membership card. They also check receipts which greatly cuts down on shoplifting and fraud. I'm sure the shoplifting supporters will scream foul but I don't care what that group thinks. They will have to find another store to shoplift at.

At my Costco, they have continued their "covid procedure" of having an employee actually scan each item in your cart at self-checkout. There is one employee assigned to each little station and they are with you the entire time, so there is no way to just walk out without paying.

The good thing about it is that the procedure has greatly increased the speed of "self-checkout" because it eliminates taking items out of your cart, swiping them, and then reloading the cart. Easy peasy and quick.

 

[kdonnel]

At my Costco, they have continued their "covid procedure" of having an employee actually scan each item in your cart at self-checkout.

At my Costco, they have an employee who stands in the middle of the self checkouts and yells that it is truly self checkout. You must scan your own items. If you need assistance checking out go to a full service register. It is really annoying as the employee is yelling it over and over while you are checking out.