As the once beautiful city of San Francisco continues to devolve into chaos, one store has raised eyebrows for the extremes it is going to in order to stem the tide of retail theft it is suffering.
Retail theft has become an absolute plague in stores in most big, Democrat-run cities, and San Francisco has not been not spared the scourge that is closing stores all across the nation.
The problem has forced many businesses to simply give up and close down. Others have tried putting much of their wares under lock and key to prevent people from just grabbing armfuls of items and walking out.
But one business is taking a whole new approach, according to KRON-TV.
Fredericksen’s Hardware and Paint in the Cow Hollow neighborhood has lighted on a novel idea.
“It’s pretty bad,” store manager Sam Black told the station. “I mean, the dollar amounts are pretty significant, and with the tools and now we’re getting snatch-and-grabs when they take whole displays, so it’s getting kind of dangerous for the employees and the customers.”
The hardware store has not only launched a new way to stop the “rampant shoplifting” owners are suffering, but is also offering a new shopping experience.
During designated hours, the store is offering a one-on-one shopping experience. For two hours each morning and two more each evening, customers will be escorted through the store guided by an employee.
“We just want to make it uncomfortable for the thieves so they go somewhere else,” Black said.
Should shoplifting be punished more severely?
As customers are being escorted, others will be left standing near a table being used to block the exits so that thieves can’t freely roam the store.
Black said that in all the years he has been in business, the retail theft he is now experiencing is the worst he has ever seen, he told the station.
The store has also taken to locking up many products to prevent theft.
“Yeah, people aren’t happy,” Black said of customer reaction to the product lockdowns. “The regulars can’t believe it like we can’t believe it, but they’ve been really understanding.”
Black also has criticism for the city over this whole situation, and added that they aren’t getting any help at all from the police or city officials.
The new one-on-one shopping plan has been going on for three weeks. Black says he will evaluate its success at the end of the month.
Black added that he is not sure how long he will maintain this program, but he has to do something.
San Francisco supervisor Catherine Stefani blasted the situation.
“This situation is tragic and embarrassing for our city, and it’s all the more reason to get serious about solving our police staffing crisis,” Stefani said in a statement.
“We need more police on our streets, and we need them now. That’s why I’ll hold a series of hearings in March to push our city agencies to fill the hundreds of vacancies at the Police Department as soon as possible — to stop the bleeding, reverse the damage, and finally protect our residents and small businesses,” she said.
Stefani, though she is right to want to empower the police after years of the defund the police attacks on law enforcement, is missing the bigger problem. The root of the problem is the George Soros-bought prosecutors who won’t put criminals in jail.
Crooks know that they are being given carte blanche to rob stores blind and that nothing at all will be done to them. So, why not just rob with impunity? Until this dereliction of duty perpetrated by the prosecutors is reversed, these constant waves of theft will not recede.
