A major supermarket chain has been forced to close a San Francisco location after customers said they did not feel safe.
Safeway has announced it will soon close its Webster Street supermarket in the city’s Fillmore and Japantown neighborhoods.
The supermarket chain admitted that the location had to close ‘due to ongoing concerns about the safety of employees and customers, as well as ongoing issues with theft.’
Safeway will transfer all of its employees to other stores, and pharmacy customers can also choose to have their prescriptions sent to other locations.
San Francisco Police Department incident reports in the area include complaints of frequent car break-ins, assault, loitering and illegal dumping. the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The store, which had been in the community for 40 years, had made previous attempts to protect itself, such as removing all self-checkout kiosks last December, but problems persisted.
“We remain committed to serving San Francisco at our 15 remaining locations and ensuring our union employees can perform their jobs in safe work environments,” Safeway said in a statement.
Safeway has announced it will soon close its Webster Street supermarket
The Rev. Erris Edgerly of the Fillmore United Alliance told the Chronicle that the community is boycotting Safeway and that a protest against the company will take place on December 23.
“It’s clear the community is having a hard time, but to just get up and leave without calling a meeting, without an alternative to grocery shopping, is disturbing,” he told the publication.
“There was no community outreach at all.”
The venue was scheduled to close 11 months early, but was postponed until February 7 to give the community a longer transition period.
Edgerly said he was concerned that Safeway’s departure would impact other local businesses in the area.
Shoppers often park in the Safeway parking lot to visit another store, he argued.
‘It’s going to make a big impact. “I was hoping they would at least come to the table and say, ‘Here’s the problem, let’s find a solution to it,’” he said.
The store said the safety of its customers and staff was an issue, as well as increasing theft (Photo: A customer at a Safeway store in San Francisco)
“These are difficult decisions we make as a company with more than 255 stores in Northern California, and we do not take them lightly,” the store said in a statement.
“We appreciate the time and resources you have invested in helping us find a way to stay open, but unfortunately the challenges we face are too great to overcome.”
Safeway is owned by Albertsons, which recently withdrew from a $25 billion merger with Kroger.
Albertson is now suing Kroger, saying it didn’t do enough to get regulatory approval for the deal.
Both federal and state judges on Tuesday blocked the deal, which would have been the largest supermarket merger in US history.
The companies said a merger, originally proposed in 2022, would help them better compete with major retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon.
But the deal faced three separate legal challenges, including one filed by the Federal Trade Commission, which argued that if the companies worked together, it would reduce competition and drive up grocery prices for consumers.