Why San Francisco is considering a bill that would let shoppers sue grocers closing stores
Why San Francisco is considering a bill that would let shoppers sue grocers closing stores
The Neighborhood Grocery Protection Act was considered once before in 1984
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I found the text of the proposed law here. Its not well written in my opinion.
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It doesn't look like there would be anything preventing the planned grocery store from dropping its inventory down to near zero and retaining only a couple people to staff it for the 6 month closure period. So, yes, the store would be open, but it could have nearly empty shelves.
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The law is requiring the closing company to find another place/build another solution for the residents to buy groceries:
Supervisors Preston; Peskin BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Page 4
SEC. 5703. GOOD FAITH EFFORTS TO ENSURE CONTINUITY OF SERVICES. During the period between the issuance of the notices required under Section 5702 and Supermarket’s Closure, the Supermarket shall meet and work in good faith with neighborhood residents and OEWD to find a workable solution to allow for the continued availability of groceries at the Supermarket location. Solutions may include, but are not limited to, identifying strategies and resources to allow the Supermarket to remain open, helping the residents organize and open a cooperative, and identifying another Supermarket operator capable of continuing grocery sales.
This extra burden would actually incentivize grocery stores to close while there are still viable competitors nearly so the closing store doesn't get left holding the bag forced to set up another organization to let the residents buy groceries.
yeah and seems like it would discourage anyone from opening a store.
This seems like a great way to keep food deserts as food deserts.
Mission accomplished!
I would argue staying open but empty everything wouldn’t constitute “good faith efforts”
But they might not be able to afford the rent, so that "good faith effort" is only affordable from large chains, discouraging any local grocery stores from even trying to enter the market.
The "good faith efforts" clause looks to finding solutions for food access after the grocery store is gone. Again, this goes to my comment about this being poorly written.
"the Supermarket shall meet and work in good faith with neighborhood residents and OEWD to find a workable solution to allow for the continued availability of groceries at the Supermarket location."
If I was a grocery operating on the edge of viability, I'd probably choose to close now before this law went into effect.
This is such a cool law. Hope it passes. We're talking about a context where there are NOT multiple grocery stores at risk of closing in the areas this bill is intended to benefit.
You don't see the knock on effect of shutting stores early that might otherwise stay open because they don't want to get stuck with this law? How about the chilling effect on any new grocery stores being opened? Why would a new store come into this area with the risk they may be stuck if the store isn't viable?
It's already a bad situation in SF. The economic opportunity of having a thriving business is far greater than the potential losses this bill would cause to a business, which are ... giving notice 6 months in advance, hosting a few community meetings, writing a report or something on possible replacements? I'm not saying those things are free, but they wouldn't break the bank.
This bill not as substantial as people are making it out to be. You'd make more money staying in business than you would save by shutting down early to avoid the small costs incurred by this law.
If anything this would encourage small grocers to build businesses, because they know that big chains like Safeway won't be able to get away with their usual tactics of abandoning neighborhoods and holding onto properties.
The economic opportunity of having a thriving business is far greater than the potential losses this bill would cause to a business, which are … giving notice 6 months in advance, hosting a few community meetings, writing a report or something on possible replacements?
There is nothing in this proposed law that results in a thriving business at the end. Thriving businesses don't close. The only reason a store would be closing is if its not thriving.
You’d make more money staying in business than you would save by shutting down early to avoid the small costs incurred by this law.
If you're closing your store its already losing money. There's no money to be made in staying open. Staying open over time just means losing more money. Its a quick bit of math to find out where the amount money lost from operating for additional months at a loss compared to the cost of closing (because of this new law) means to "break even" on your losses, the better business decision is to close the store months early.
Example using small simple numbers for illustration:
Lets say your store is losing $100,000/month in operation. Lets say that the cost of complying with this law would cost $2 million. That $1m is an additional 6 months of operating at a $100,000/month loss, as well as an additional $1,400,000 in labor to set up community meetings on alternatives or helping the residents set up a coop.
- Your second best business decision would be to announce tomorrow that you're closing to start the clock on the mandatory 6 month operation.
- Your first best bet is to close before your competitor serving the same community does. That way, you cut your losses immediately and don't have to spend $1.4m complying with the law, because you won't be the last grocery store standing.
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