Major grocery store closes San Francisco location because customers don't feel safe

A major grocery chain has been forced to close a San Francisco location after customers claimed they did not feel safe.

Safeway announced it will soon close its Webster Street supermarket in the city's Fillmore and Japantown neighborhood.

The grocery store chain admitted that the location had to close 'due to ongoing concerns about associate and customer safety, as well as persistent issues with theft.'

Safeway will transfer all of its staff to other stores and pharmacy customers can also choose to send their prescriptions to other locations. 

San Francisco Police Department incident reports in the vicinity include complaints of frequent car break-ins, assaults, loitering and illegal dumping, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. 

The store, which had been in the community for 40 years, had made previous efforts to protect itself, such as removing all its self-checkout kiosks last December, but issues persisted. 

'We remain committed to serving San Francisco at our 15 remaining locations, and to ensure that our unionized workforce can perform their jobs in safe and secure working environments,' Safeway said in a statement. 

Rev. Erris Edgerly of the Fillmore United Alliance told the Chronicle that the community is boycotting Safeway and a protest against the company will be held on December 23. 

'It's obvious the community has been struggling, but to just up and leave without calling a meeting, with no alternative for groceries, is upsetting,' he told the publication.

'There was no community outreach at all.' 

The location was slated to close eleven months earlier but was postponed to February 7, to give the community a longer transition period. 

Edgerly said he was concerned that Safeway's departure would affect other local businesses in the neighborhood. 

Shoppers often park in the Safeway parking lot to visit other store, he argued. 

'It's going to make a big impact. I was hoping they would at least come to the table and say, "This is the issue, let's work it out," he said.  

'These are difficult decisions we make as a business with more than 255 stores across Northern California, and we do not take it lightly,' the store said in a statement.

'We appreciate the time and resources you've invested in trying to help 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 backed out of a $25 billion merger with Kroger.

Albertsons is now suing Kroger, saying it did not do enough to secure regulatory approval for the agreement.

Both federal and state judges blocked the deal on Tuesday, which would have been the largest grocery store merger in US history.

The companies said a merger, which was originally proposed in 2022, would help them better compete with big 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 combined it would reduce competition and push up grocery prices for consumers.