In early January, the Safeway on Webster and Ellis in the Western Addition announced that it would be closing “on or around early March” with plans to sell the 3.68-acre property to Align Real Estate.
The announcement sparked alarm in the community and after organized push-back, Safeway announced that it would delay the closure til January 2025. But Supervisor Dean Preston and Western Addition community members are asking for more.
On Tuesday morning a crowd of more than 100 people gathered outside of the Safeway on Webster St. to demand a say in the company’s decision to close down the store.
Monique El Amin grew up and now works in the neighborhood. She says it’s full of housing for seniors who rely heavily on the grocery stores proximity to their homes.
“I’m a younger person, I can walk three miles from here and get something to eat, but our seniors come down here on canes and walkers, and they have their independence and self dignity to buy their groceries on their own, and that's all we want. And to be able to get to their pharmacies, that's all.”
El Amin says that if the Safeway is closed, the closest “affordable” grocery store would be over three miles away, essentially creating a food desert in the historically Black neighborhood and nearby Japantown.
Alice Kawahatsu has lived in Japantown for 36 years, she relies on Safeway to get her groceries, and says the store is essential for low-income mothers as well.
“Prices on food are going up and this is the only place actually that accepts WIC, which is food for low income mothers.”
San Francisco has a history dealing with flighty grocery stores and businesses. In 1984, the SF Board of Supervisors passed the “Neighborhood Grocery Protection Act,” a law that requires six-months advance notice and community involvement before a community-serving grocery store would be allowed to close. But, then-Mayor Diane Feinstein vetoed the law, and it lay dormant until this week when Supervisor Preston used it to draft his own resolution.
“It is not acceptable to close a major grocery store that a community relies on and not even have a discussion with the city and with the community about alternatives. You wanna close your grocery store? That's fine. You're a business. Let's find someone else to run that grocery store.”
After over an hour of public comment, the Board of Supervisors voted to approve the resolution, and a formal request was made to the City Attorney to draft a new version of the Neighborhood Grocery Protection Act.
Safeway did not respond to KALW’s request for comment.
