BIZNOTE: West Seattle QFCs drop overnight hours

Thanks to Matt for the tip via Twitter. West Seattle no longer has a 24-hour-a-day QFC supermarket. Orange flyers on the Junction QFC doors announced that as of yesterday, the store’s hours are 5 am-midnight; same hours are posted at the Westwood QFC. Too late in the day for us to reach their corporate spokesfolk now, but we’ll be asking tomorrow; at least one other store in the region cut overnight hours in the past year. West Seattle still has other around-the-clock grocery stores, including Metropolitan Market (WSB sponsor) and the Safeways.

Rick June 13, 2016 (4:02 pm)

I think most people understand why.

Keith June 13, 2016 (5:47 pm)

I don’t. Why?

Rick June 13, 2016 (4:07 pm)

The Safeway on 35th and Morgan didn’t close due to shoplifting per se, it was due to theft (people eating in store). Unfortunate.

Chuck June 13, 2016 (4:37 pm)

Safeway at 35th at Morgan?

Rick June 13, 2016 (4:45 pm)

Long tine ago.

Rick June 13, 2016 (4:46 pm)

time oops

Space Dust June 13, 2016 (5:25 pm)

Rick…we knew what you meant. :>) and yes it was a long time ago!

Julianne Farmer June 13, 2016 (7:23 pm)

An SPD officer told me last week, that the manager at Westwood got fired after attempting an intervention on a shoplifter. Too bad, they are really nice people working there.

Matt June 13, 2016 (8:02 pm)

That’s lame. I’d often come back to WS after late night shows and grab caffeine/food. Oh well… I guess. They mention that other QFC in Capitol Hill not being 24 hours anymore but I think that is due to safety and people not being able to handle having one always open in that spot. Are people sure this is not due to crime?

Smokeycretin9 June 13, 2016 (8:21 pm)

Fired….. for intervening with a shoplifting suspect?

Oh what is this world coming to?

AMD June 13, 2016 (9:35 pm)

In my retail days I’ve seen a number of people fired for intervening with shoplifters at a number of different chains, including the WW Target. If you do anything other than the exact steps they tell you to your face you’re allowed to do, you can be fired. They’d rather lose a good employee than worry about even a tiny risk of being sued because you used wording that could possibly imply… whatever or confronted someone three feet too far from the door, or any number of tiny things they’re afraid of being sued over. It’s pretty stupid, imo.

I personally would assume that the relatively few sales they get in those five hours don’t make up for the cost of added security at that time.

Coffee June 13, 2016 (10:26 pm)

I recall being in Saars in White Center and the store employees took the a guy down for lifting 3 16 ounce beers.

Double Dub Resident June 14, 2016 (7:17 am)

I remember working at Big 5 in Westwood a number of years ago and someone was trying to shop lift shoes. Me and a co worker confronted him and he decided to fight. He didn’t make it out of the situation very well. The manager just told us that next time not to do that.

The cop asked what happened and we explained that he attacked us, so we defended ourselves and that was that.

WSJoe June 14, 2016 (10:05 am)

You can be a tough guy and try to stop a shoplifter. But you never know how crazy it can get and what weapons they might be carrying. Its not worth an injury, or worse, loss of life for a shop lifted item. The rules for apprehension are strict and shop lifters know it. They also know that most employees can’t with hold them unless there is on site security. You see videos of the face to face shoot outs and its not worth it. You also don’t want to get into a lawsuit if you falsely accuse someone. There is a lot more wrangling than meets the eye.

Double Dub Resident June 14, 2016 (11:22 am)

The more the city caters to the criminals, the more the criminals are going to cater to themselves

ltfd June 14, 2016 (2:35 pm)

Too much riffraff between midnight and 5AM.

Double Dub Resident June 14, 2016 (3:51 pm)

Exactly itfd,

Now, if the McDonald’s in Westwood stopped being 24 hours, Westwood might get rid of some of the shady characters in the area who tend to congregate there.

I go to work pretty early and see some shady characters around there.

Westwood Village used to be kind of a dump, then they fixed it up and it was really nice, now with all shady people hanging around there, it’s moving back the other way again. Shoplifting is rampant there now, people are begging for money at every entrance/exit, I constantly have people coming up to me when going to my car asking me for money, and the behaviors of some people down there in general leaves me shaking my head.