And these three closures will come after the Walgreens stores on Ocean Avenue and Mission Street in San Francisco were shuttered for good earlier this month.
By now, you’ve likely heard about how Walgreens announced last month it intended to close five local branches in San Francisco by the end of November, citing rampant shoplifting as a viable means to create a growing number of pharmacy deserts in the city (and country). Well, today is the last day of operation for two of those stores: the one on 745 Clement Street and a location at 300 Gough Street. This pair of stores follows the first two locations to close this month; those were at 550 Ocean Avenue and 4645 Mission Street; the last Walgreens store, the one at 3400 Cesar Chavez Street, will close on November 17.
Hoodline reported on very sad-looking, very empty shelves at that Cesar Chavez Street Walgreens last week. That store, which is slated to close Wednesday, might not even have anything left to offer for sale by then, based on the published pictures in that article.
In 2021, ABC7 reporter Lyanne Melendez shot that viral video of a shoplifter clearing out shelves at the soon-to-be-closed Gough Street Walgreens.
The news outlet was also able to procure the following email from a Walgreens associate named Alexandra Brown:
Due largely to ongoing organized retail theft, we have made the difficult decision to close five stores across San Francisco. Each store will transfer prescriptions to a nearby Walgreens location within a mile radius and we expect to place the stores’ team members in other nearby locations.
Organized retail theft continues to be a challenge facing retailers across San Francisco, and we are not immune to that. Retail theft across our San Francisco stores has continued to increase in the past few months to five times our chain average. During this time to help combat this issue, we increased our investments in security measures in stores across the city to 46 times our chain average in an effort to provide a safe environment.
Patients will not need to take any action; their prescriptions will automatically transfer to a nearby Walgreens and they can expect to receive additional information in the mail.
Don’t forget this fact: Only two locations operated by CVS, the nation’s single-largest pharmacy store company, have closed in San Francisco since 2019, even though they’ve cited having the same problems. During that same time, at least 10 Walgreens locations have shuttered.
But if you’re looking to get some steeply discounted goods — like, say, up to 90% off their listed prices — make sure to hit up these three closing Walgreens stores before they lock their doors… forever.
Related: Five SF Walgreens Closing, Company Blames Shoplifting
Top Image: Customers leave a Walgreens store that is set to be closed in the coming weeks on October 13, 2021 in San Francisco, California. Walgreens announced plans to close five of its San Francisco stores due to organized retail shoplifting that has plagued its stores in the city. The retail pharmacy chain has already shuttered 10 stores in the city since 2019. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)