This story is so crazy that I think it could only happen in San Francisco. Way back in July 2023, the SF Standard was pointing out that the situation at many Safeway grocery stores in San Francisco was not sustainable because of rampant theft.
A San Francisco Safeway with new receipt-scanning security gates continues to see high rates of daily theft despite the increased shoplifting measures, staff say.
“I’d say 60 to 100 [thefts] on my shift alone,” said a security guard at the 3350 Mission St. Safeway, who spoke anonymously because he is not authorized to speak to the press…
“It’s a lot worse at night. During the day, it’s OK,” another Safeway employee said, also speaking anonymously because staffers are not authorized to speak to the press. The worker said shoplifters usually target items that are not food…
Another store in the Fillmore District also has security gates installed.
That last line was about the Fillmore store on Webster street. That store was also featured in a local news report about the efforts to cut down on theft.
Unfortunately, the gates didn’t work. Shoplifters realized they could just push they way through them and the thefts continued. Eventually, in February 2025, Safeway decided to close the Fillmore store and admitted theft and the safety of people in the store was the reason.
Safeway announced on Tuesday that it will close its Webster Street supermarket on Feb. 7, a blow to San Francisco’s Fillmore and Japantown neighborhoods that have pushed the grocery chain to keep the struggling store open.
In a letter to Mayor London Breed, Safeway said it had been set to close 11 months earlier, in March of this year, but “extended its operations … to provide a greater transition period for the community.”
The company said it was “proud” of its 40-year history in the Fillmore but that the decision to close the store was made “due to ongoing concerns about associate and customer safety, as well as persistent issues with theft.” All employees will be assigned to other stores. Pharmacy customers can elect to have their files transferred to other stores, Safeway said.
A subsequent story offered more detail on the theft problem at this particular store.
One Gardaworld private security guard, who spoke on condition of anonymity, estimated the store loses roughly $7,000 a day to shoplifters.
“It’s really bad,” the guard said. “It’s a problem.”
Commonly stolen items include cooking oil, meat, and liquor. The guard said thieves have staffers open locked liquor shelves, then take a bottle and run. They’ll also take an empty Safeway shopping bag, fill it with merchandise, and try to walk out the front entrance, pretending they already paid.
“They’re taking stuff they can sell,” the guard said.
There’s really no doubt why this happened or that Safeway was getting robbed blind every single day it was open. And yet, SF Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who is considered a moderate in the city, has proposed a new city ordinance which would punish grocery stores for closing and leaving the site vacant.
Mahmood is hoping his ballot measure to establish a fund to subsidize grocery stores and levy a tax on vacant supermarkets will pressure grocers to lease to new operators or reopen. The idea resembles one from New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose proposal would establish government-subsidized grocery stores.
While Mahmood’s proposal faced a setback last week from the Board of Supervisors and opposition from Mayor Daniel Lurie, he’s planning to introduce a motion Tuesday(opens in new tab) for the Board of Supervisors to re-hear the measure by the end of the month, which would restart the process of placing it on the ballot.
Mahmood is now saying that Safeway’s owner slow-walked and killed attempts by three other chains to put a new store on the site, at least temporarily.
Mahmood alleges the negotiations between the three grocers, Safeway, and Align Real Estate failed because Safeway impeded efforts to find a replacement grocer. Emails Mahmood provided offer a behind-the-scenes look at negotiations marked by canceled meetings, stalled talks, and growing frustration.
And while his allegations get an exclusive story, if you read far enough you’ll find that this isn’t true according to insiders.
Sources with knowledge of the deal rejected the notion that Safeway had impeded efforts to bring in a new grocer and said the grocers walked away from the deal for financial reasons. The amount needed to bring the building up to code, which may have been $2 million to $4 million, was so high that they would need to operate a store there longer than the proposal allowed for it to pencil out.
The property is going to be torn down and turned into hundreds of new apartments in about three years. So it’s no wonder the grocery chains didn’t see an upside in these deals given the amount of investment required up front.
The fault here is not Safeway’s. Blame should be placed squarely on the city of San Francisco, which completely failed to manage homelessness, shoplifting and other petty theft for several years. The neighborhood had a perfectly good grocery store in this location for 40 years. It closed because of rampant theft which the city knew about and failed to stop. Now this supervisor wants to punish the owners for refusing to be a perpetual target for the thieves.
The time to be a hero to the neighborhood was three years ago when Safeway was crying for help and theft from these stores was making news. It’s too late to fix it now with yet another tax. Supervisor Mahmood should focus on the failure that caused this problem instead of trying and grab money from someone else.
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