San Francisco Safeway adds barriers, gates and guards to thwart increased thefts
San Francisco CA Dec 6 2021
“This Safeway is getting weirder and weirder,” one shopper muttered as he walked through newly installed security gates at the entrance of the grocery store near San Francisco’s Castro District.
The automatic gates, added to the Safeway at 2020 Market St., let customers easily enter the store but swing quickly shut behind them, preventing would-be thieves from dashing out with shopping carts full of stolen items.
The supermarket also has added barriers around its self-checkout area, funneling customers through only one exit. Checkout aisles that aren’t staffed are blocked with large physical barriers rather than just a cord, and the entire side entrance to the store has been closed and blocked off by a large display of plastic water bottles.
Safeway executives said that the new security measures were a response to what it says is increased shoplifting at the locale.
“Like other local businesses, we are working on ways to curtail escalating theft to ensure the wellbeing of our employees and to foster a welcoming environment for our customers. Their safety remains our top priority,” Wendy Gutshall, director of public and government affairs for Safeway’s Northern California Division, said in an emailed statement. “These long-planned security improvements were implemented with those goals in mind.”
The company did not respond to queries on whether it plans to roll out the security barriers and other anti-shoplifting measures at other stores in San Francisco or the Bay Area.
Safeway’s move comes after the same market cut its hours in October — now closing at 9 p.m, the earliest of any of the chain’s locations in San Francisco — again due to shoplifting, the store said. It also comes amid fierce public debate over retail theft and property crime in San Francisco, as large chain stores such as Walgreens and Target are closing stores or cutting hours due to alleged increases in theft, and after stores across the Bay Area suffered from a series of high-profile smash-and-grab robberies in November.
On Friday, California attorney general Rob Bonta announced the sentencing of five individuals involved in organized retail crime aimed at retailers such as CVS, Target and Walgreens in the Bay Area in 2020.
San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, whose district includes the Market Street Safeway, said that theft at the store is “out of control” and “absolutely” on the rise.
Recent analyses of shoplifting data at Walgreens by the Chronicle and SFGate found that existing data doesn’t support the claim that shoplifting was the only factor leading to its store closures, especially since the chain announced before the pandemic that it would be shuttering 19 outlets. The Chronicle also found that San Francisco lacks reliable shoplifting data.
Mandelman said that he recently met with San Francisco police and Safeway to address issues at the Market Street store. He said he wasn’t surprised with the upgraded security measures — they’re consistent with what the company said it would be doing, he said.
“They are doing it regretfully because it makes for a less enjoyable experience for customers,” he said, “but they feel that they have to.”
But on a Saturday morning visit to the Market Street location, most shoppers weren’t bothered by the changes, many barely aware of them. Several added that, if anything, the security changes improved the shopping experience.
Shopper Rosa Estrella said she hardly noticed the new gates, and that she didn’t mind them being there.
“It kind of makes it feel more organized, with who gets in and who gets out,” she said, peering back into the store for another look at them after exiting. “It feels safe.”
Franklin Heng also said that the gates made the store look and feel “more organized,” but that the security really didn’t change his experience very much. “I feel safe, but I also never felt particularly unsafe here,” he said.
Another shopper, Beth Spradley, echoed that the increased security didn’t impede her shopping experience at all — “certainly not as much as a theft would,” she said. Like Heng, she said that while it made her feel safer, she had “never felt unsafe” before.
“I feel bad that the corporation has to do it, that’s a culture that’s OK in San Francisco,” she added, but “it didn’t bother me at all. I didn’t even really notice.”
While it remains to be seen how well the new barriers will work, similar measures have been taken at stores in Europe. In the United Kingdom, one supermarket called it an “extreme method” but “a very effective one,” according to the Mirror.
The gates and barriers are far from the only security measures at the Safeway — like many other retailers in the city, the store has long had guards by the entrance, and it keeps items like toiletries, air fresheners, candles and some alcohol locked behind plexiglass barriers, requiring customers to ring a button for a staffer to retrieve items.
On Saturday, the store also seemed to have more guards — both at the entrance and roaming around the store, muttering into walkie-talkies as customers hustled by, paying them almost no attention. Occasionally, security guards had to stop customers at the entrance gate to remind them to wear a mask while shopping.
But the gates, which would normally swing open for one customer at a time, were ajar on Saturday. One guard explained that the gates, which operate automatically, were stuck in the open position.
Guards remained close by to make up for it.
