Mayor London Breed announced today that the Safeway grocery store in the Fillmore will remain open until 2025, backpedaling the chain’s announcement early this month that it would be closing the store after 40 years in the neighborhood.
The store, which was slated to close in March after its 3.68 acres in Webster Plaza sold to a real estate developer, said in a statement today that the decision was to “give the community and the City more time to establish a transition plan.”
When Safeway first announced its imminent closure, Breed, who grew up in public housing nearby, appeared to support the new mixed-use development that was slated for the property at 1335 Webster St., encouraging Fillmore residents to shop at a Trader Joe’s that is expected to open this year in Hayes Valley, more than half a mile from the current Safeway.
Residents of the historically Black neighborhood, however, pushed back on the sudden closure of the store, which was announced with little warning and would have left the neighborhood without a full-service grocer. The neighborhood, which is also home to many seniors, has a history of “redevelopment” between the 1940s and 1970s that systematically pushed out the once much-larger Black and immigrant population there.
Breed’s office said today’s announcement came after “extensive discussions” with Safeway and the site’s new owner, Align Real Estate. Breed’s announcement said that her office is exploring possibilities for Webster Plaza, including bringing in a new grocery store to replace Safeway.
“I appreciate Safeway for being a good community partner to San Francisco, and their willingness to engage in a collaborative discussion to lift up this neighborhood’s needs now and in the future,” Breed’s statement read.
Others in the Fillmore disagreed that Safeway has been a good community partner. Rev. Amos Brown, a community leader and head of the San Francisco NAACP, slammed Safeway earlier this month for refusing to engage with the community on public safety issues in the area.
“It’s about the fact that our people rose up and said, ‘This is not fair, it’s not just, and we deserve better respect than this,’” said Brown today. “We look forward to Safeway being a better corporate citizen of being involved with this community.”
Though the store, like many stores in San Francisco, has dealt with shoplifting issues, Safeway did not mention crime as a reason for its closure.
District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston had also pledged to fight the closure, and proposed a resolution condemning the plan — this will be voted on by the Board of Supervisors tomorrow.
“Just the fact that they’re going to stay open past March is a huge win,” said Preston’s aide, Preston Kilgore.
But, beyond staying open temporarily, he said that the supervisor’s office is also exploring what will happen with the development. Currently, plans for the site are vague, but expected to include some housing and commercial space.
Preston, and supervisors Aaron Peskin, Ahsha Safaí and Shamann Walton, are expected to appear alongside community members at a rally at Webster Plaza on Tuesday, and Preston is expected to introduce new legislation related to grocery-store closures.
Big victory for Mayor Breed and the city
Nah.it was all Dean Preston. Breed is a nasty, greedy photo op mayor who doesn’t care a fig about her former D5 constituents. She jumps for Big Tech, angel investors and corporate real estate. Worst. Mayor. Ever.
her ‘zonor telling residents to shop at trader joes is akin to ‘let them eat cake’.