Walgreens: getting out while they still can

Thomas Lifson recently wrote about In-N-Out Burger and Denny’s fleeing Oakland, California. Crime became so constant and blatant it was too dangerous for employees and customers. At the In-N-Out, criminals were going from car to car in the drive-up lane, robbing customers as they waited for their orders.

This kind of wanton, and unrestrained criminality isn’t limited to California. It’s everywhere Democrats/socialist/communists rule, places across the country like Boston:

Walgreens was accused of "racial discrimination" by a Democratic lawmaker in Massachusetts after the pharmacy giant closed another location in Boston.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., railed against the "multi-billion dollar corporation" for their decision to pull out of the predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhood of Roxbury during a speech on the House floor on Wednesday. It is the fourth Walgreens store to close in Boston in a little over a year.

Graphic: C-SPAN screenshot

"Mr. Speaker, Walgreens is planning to close yet another pharmacy in the Massachusetts 7th. This time on Warren Street in Roxbury, a community that is 85 percent Black and Latino. This closure is a part of a larger trend of abandoning low-income communities like the previous closures in Mattapan and Hyde Park, both in the Massachusetts 7th," Pressley began.

"When a Walgreens leaves a neighborhood they disrupt the entire community and they take with them baby formula, diapers, asthma inhalers, life-saving medications, and, of course, jobs. These closures are not arbitrary and they are not innocent. They are life-threatening acts of racial and economic discrimination," she stated.

Walgreens is taking what little remains on the shelves after “the entire community” took everything else without the intermediate step of paying for it.

Pressley noted how she, along with fellow Massachusetts Democrats Senator Ed Markey and Senator Elizabeth Warren, had demanded answers from Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth.

Last month, the Democratic lawmakers protested the store's closure with locals in the neighborhood, arguing that vulnerable seniors in the low-income neighborhood would not be able to fill critical prescriptions, Boston25 News reported.

What a shame no one could have possibly foreseen that when crime runs rampant, and constant, organized shoplifting destroys any hope of making a profit, businesses tend to go where crime is not rampant and they can make a profit. In Boston, apparently profit is racist.

"Why was there no community input? No adequate notice to customers? And no transition resources to prevent gaps in health care? Shame on you, Walgreens. Having a website with talking points about health equity and underserved communities is not enough. Walgreens is a multi-billion-dollar corporation that needs to put their money where their mouth is and stop divesting from Black and brown communities," she said.

The community had plenty of input, or more accurately, output, which is why Walgreens is fleeing.

In 2022, Walgreens was accused of racism by Boston officials after it closed three other stores in mostly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.

At the time, the company said "several factors are taken into account" when choosing to close a location, such as "the dynamics of the local market and changes in the buying habits of our patients and customers."

Such as not bothering to pay for things by the dynamic criminals operating in the “local market?” One would think adults, having lived in such places long enough to experience reality, like being robbed and constantly burglarized, would come to understand cause-effect relationships. Places like Washington, DC, for example?

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Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb infuriated residents after claiming the city's rampant crime crisis cannot be dealt with through law and order.

Angry residents met with community leaders in Washington, D.C., Tuesday for a panel to discuss the rise of violent crime in the city, specifically among juveniles, when Schwalb made the controversial comment.

As residents voiced their concerns and frustrations, the Democrat suggested that if district residents want to be "safer in the long run," they must take preventative measures rather than arrest and prosecute violent criminals.

Of course, because “don’t” has worked so well to deter Iran, it will surely work on domestic criminals.

"We as a city and a community need to be much more focused on prevention and surrounding young people and their families with resources if we want to be safer in the long run," Shwalb said in a viral clip from Fox 5. "We cannot prosecute and arrest our way out of it."

Schwalb is obviously a scientific socialist/communist who knows, like Kamala Harris, we must find and address the “root causes” of crime. Normal Americans are soooo simplistic. They actually believe arresting criminals and putting them in jail will keep those criminals from committing crimes and will deter others. The self-imagined elite like Schwalb know better. And so do the folks at In-N-Out and Denny’s, which is why they’re fleeing.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.  

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