Lucky, a major national grocery-store chain with one of the few grocery stores in Bayview, will close its doors there after just three years in the neighborhood.
Now, just two major grocery stores, Foods Co. and Grocery Outlet, are left in Bayview. Both are more than a mile away from the shuttered Lucky.
The loss of Lucky “is another major blow to the Bayview community, which has long faced challenges of being a food desert,” said District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton.
Walton added that his office will work with the Office of Economic and Workforce Development to bring “essential” grocery and pharmacy services back to the area.
“Bayview families should not have to leave their neighborhood for groceries, medications and other basic necessities,” Walton said.
Lucky opened at Bayview Plaza on Third Street in October 2022, replacing a Walgreens that closed in 2019 after more than 30 years at the spot.
A Seattle cannabis dispensary had been rumored to take the pharmacy’s place, but the grocery store arrived instead after pressure from the supervisor’s office.
“It impacts me directly,” says Dontaye Ball, president of the Bayview Merchants Association and owner of the restaurant Gumbo Social. “I’m disappointed that there wasn’t a meeting with community groups to try to help keep them here.”
Walgreens executives never provided a statement on why they chose to leave the location, though some suspected high rates of retail theft. But over the past few years, Walgreens has phased out more than 20 stores in San Francisco where the chain did not generate enough revenue.
It is unclear why Lucky is closing. It did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
However, Natalie Gee, an aid from Supervisor Walton’s office, said that, in previous meetings with the grocery store chain, they were hesitant to take on the Bayview location.
“They probably aren’t making as much money as they are at their other, larger locations,” said Gee.
The supervisor’s office is trying to meet with Lucky to convince them to extend their stay, says Gee — and to understand why they’re leaving.
Ball, who was part of the advisory board that worked to bring Lucky to Bayview Plaza, says he doesn’t believe the move would have happened if the ownership of the grocery chain hadn’t changed.
Save Mart Companies acquired Lucky in 2024. The original owners, says Ball, worked with community members and had a vision of expanding smaller neighborhood grocery stores across the city.
The southeastern neighborhood, which is disproportionately low-income, has struggled with food access for decades, and many residents live with food insecurity.
While former Mayor London Breed was in office, the District 10 Community Market, which offered a wide selection of free groceries for residents who receive government benefits opened to create more access to healthy food options.
That program is still open today.
Neil, the owner of BayCopy SF, next door to Lucky, says that he hopes that whoever takes over “shows interest in the community,” and he hopes it’s another produce market.
“It was a good thing for the community to have,” he says. “I would like to see someone that stays longer than two years.”
Walton credited Lucky for creating “local jobs, supporting small businesses and giving families long-overdue access to fresh, healthy food.”
“Just as we fought to bring Lucky’s to Bayview following the Walgreens closure,” Walton continued, “we will work tirelessly until residents once more have access to the essential services they deserve.”
As long as residents of Bayview-Hunters Point district behave like reckless human beings, grocery stores will start disappearing “Until There Were None” (to paraphrase a Agatha Christie novel. It ‘s rampant crime and theft that drove Lucky’s away, but the media is hesitant to mention it due to woke sensibilities.
The Super Save Market on 3rd& LaSalke has been open for decades. There is also a Mi Rancho fresh produce market open on 3rd & Carroll. The reporting is not accurate. Lucky closed as a business venture due to change in ownership. Your comments are racist!
Thanks for that “insight” Donald.
And thanks for your ‘insight’ Louis.
Shamann Walton should work with local police and community leaders to prevent criminals from shoplifting. No business and let me say that again, NO BUSINESS, will come and stay in your community if the work environment for their employees is unsafe and shoplifting is allowed.
Proposition 47 (2014) reclassified theft of property worth less than $950 as a misdemeanor rather than a felony, protecting repeat shoplifters, resulting in little or no jail time.
Progressive jurisdictions reduced or eliminated cash bail for low-level offenses, so people arrested for shoplifting or breaking/entering are released while awaiting trial, leading to repeat offenses and more theft!
Progressive SF DA Chesa Boudin, and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, frequently instructed prosecutors not to pursue jail time for low-level shoplifting, trespassing, or drug possession, encouraging repeat offences due to lack of consequences!
Progressives enacted diversion programs so instead of jail or fines, offenders are sent to counseling, treatment, or community service. And the nonsense goes on and on.
Perhaps Shamann Walton and other progressives should conduct business in Bay View and see how much they will enjoy subsidizing theft, monetary lossless and dealing with their nonsense laws they passed!
That dastardly time traveling chesa has struck again!!
“Shamann Walton should work with local police and community leaders to prevent criminals from shoplifting.”
Shoplifting isn’t a Bayview problem, it’s an American poverty problem. Unless you want to make the same argument for closing Safeways throughout the city, because they all have shoplifters.
But go on, you were trying to blame politics for petty crimes being ubiquitous nationwide…
Most products at this location were/are priced higher than a grocery store not in an area deemed a “food desert”. I’d rather travel farther for better prices over highway robbery in a local location.
The Super Save Market on 3rd & LaSalle and the new fresh produce Mi Rancho Market at 3rd and Carroll offer services to south central Bayview Hunters Point in a region that has long met Department of Agriculture criteria as a food desert. Ironically, closure of the Bayview Plaza Lucky’s will have greatest impact on residents living on the Hunters Point hilltop…in upscale homes and condos!
The Super Save Market on 3rd & LaSalle and the new fresh produce Mi Rancho Market at 3rd and Carroll offer services to south central Bayview Hunters Point in a region that has long met Department of Agriculture criteria as a food desert. Ironically, closure of the Bayview Plaza Lucky’s will have greatest impact on residents living on the Hunters Point hilltop…in upscale homes and condos!
Food desert or ethical behavior desert? Which came first?
I was surprised at how small that Lucky’s was. Was it much better than Super Save just up the street?
“I’m disappointed that there wasn’t a meeting with community groups to try to help keep them here.”
The idea that a “meeting” is what was needed – it’s “non-profit” group B.S. You need to go into the store, their place of business and tell the management that you want them, that you hear their concerns.
Good job libs for working so hard against any market rate gentrification in bayview during 2014-2020. Now 5 years post Covid, you reap what you sow. Not to mention the near total decimation of any new retail on 3rd street. *As Beck’s 1990’s swan song plays in the background…I’m a loser baby, why don’t you **** me.”
It’s crazy because all the fresh produce comes into SF through the Bayview in the first place yet now there won’t be a retail space for them to even access it.
This is where they should be building their upzoned plans for Paris-SF, where there is nothing and development is actually needed and called for.
“ This is where they should be building their upzoned plans for Paris-SF…”. Umm, “nope” that ain’t happening cause: few people from the outside want to come to bayview, the local population can’t support businesses there well, plus there is rampant theft. See my comment above when in 2014-2020 there were efforts to revamp bayview, but they failed for the reason I mentioned. …time is a piece of wax falling on a termite that’s choking on the splinters…
Unless your ‘hood is too dangerous for Amazon to deliver there, the concept of ‘food desert’ is a myth.
Seems very likely that Lucky cannot make money in that location. A relatively poor demographic there means sales are mostly of law margin goods. And theft will be an issue. The shops that do well there, and in West Oakland, are the ones selling alcohol and tobacco, and for most people that means small corner stores and not full service outlets.
That ignores that in reality, people still eat food.
Sure folks still eat. It is just processed, junk and fast food rather than real food bought in supermarkets and cooked at home.
Almost all the produce in SF comes to town by way of Bayview.
Lurie wants to help build neighborhoods, well gee. Do it there.