JUST IN: San Francisco is considering a bill that would let the…
When the managers of the Safeway grocery at Bush and Larkin Streets in San
Francisco announced in 1984 that the store would be closing permanently
within the next week, it left the locals with few options for where to buy fresh
groceries. As a result, the Neighborhood Grocery Protection Act was established by the city’s Board of Supervisors. It mandates that supermarkets
give six months’ notice before shutting and pledge to hold sincere talks with
local residents.
In San Francisco, an uncannily similar scenario is unfolding forty years later.
Another Safeway announced its closure in January; this one was located at
Webster and Ellis, in a predominantly Black neighborhood that is frequented
by older residents. Community people protested about this, and two city
supervisors—Dean Preston and Aaron Peskin—introduced the Neighborhood
Grocery Protection Act again as a result.
Preston stated in a statement, “It was a fantastic idea in 1984, and it’s an even
greater one now.” When big neighborhood grocery stores intend to close, our
communities deserve to know, a chance to be heard, and a plan for transition.
Enormous corporate companies cannot be allowed to make unilateral, behind-
the-scenes choices about how to provide food security for our elders and
families.
The suggestion is made in the midst of a major company and resident
migration from San Francisco. Nearly 40 retail establishments have closed in
Union Square, a significant commercial center in the center of San Francisco’s
downtown, since the pandemic, and dozens more have closed in the
neighborhood, according to a 2023 CNN story. Experts attribute the large
exodus to a variety of factors, including a decline in tourism, an increase in
crime, and a decrease in the demand for commercial real estate in an era of
remote work.
Nonetheless, San Francisco is not the only city facing the challenge of ensuring
that the most vulnerable citizens have access to community groceries and can
continue to do so. If the Neighborhood Grocery Protection Act is successful, it
would establish an intriguing precedent in the ongoing national effort to
combat food insecurity.
“Supermarket closures can have an especially dire impact on senior citizens,
people with disabilities and people who lack the means to travel by car or
public transportation to supermarkets outside the neighborhood,” the
ordinance says. “To safeguard the interests of workers, including the
employees of some supermarkets, federal and state laws require large
businesses to notify their employees of their intent to close or transfer
ownership of the business.”
