'No idea where that rumor came from': London Drugs not closing downtown Vancouver store, president says

After reports that London Drugs was planning to shut down one of its downtown Vancouver locations, the president and COO of the major retail chain has said it has no plans to do so.

“We can assure you that London Drugs is not closing its doors to the Georgia and Granville (streets) location, or any location,” Clint Mahlman told CTV News Wednesday. “We have no idea where that rumor came from.”

His comments come after Vancouver city Coun. Peter Meiszner wrote on social media Tuesday that he was “extremely concerned to learn that London Drugs is considering closing its downtown store at Granville and Georgia due to rampant shoplifting.”

Meiszner walked back his statement a few hours later, saying he heard from the retailer that it was not planning to shutter that particular location. “However, challenges around shoplifting are a serious, ongoing challenge for the retailer and staff,” he wrote.

Mahlman concurred, saying that shoplifting is an issue the company has invested significant resources in trying to combat.

He added that while shuttering a location is “the last on our list,” the chain isn't ruling it out in the future. 

“The very last thing we'd ever do is to close a store and we’d exhaust all options prior to that. Of course, we have to look at all options, and there have been conversations about the potential of closing a store in the future if nothing changes due to the escalating violence, vandalism and economic loss,” he said.

Mahlman described that violence as reaching a “crisis level,” saying that employees have been threatened with hatchets, machetes, guns and dirty needles. “It’s not just theft, what we’re most concerned about is the threat of violence or actual violence against our customers and employees.”

He did not give any numbers, but in July, the Retail Council of Canada reported that retail thefts have increased by 300 per cent since the beginning of the pandemic. And a three-week blitz dubbed “Project Barcode” by the Vancouver Police Department in March—which London Drugs participated in—saw 217 people arrested for shoplifting.

Nevertheless, Mahlman said the Granville and Georgia location is a safe place to shop, with the company going to “great extremes” to train staff in de-escalation, hire security guards and install HD cameras.

He said that translates to customers paying an extra one-and-a-half to three per cent more on all products to cover those costs.

Mahlman added that the issue is not just in Vancouver, but across B.C.

He said he wants “all levels” of government to do more to crack down on crime in the retail industry.

“We just can't seem to get through to them that this is such a dramatic issue, that the we hear from citizens every day that they’re worried that we're losing our streets, and that it’s becoming unsafe, they feel unsafe, whether that's real or perceived.”

He didn’t provide a specific solution as to what governments should do, saying “we’re not trying to be prescriptive,” but called for “action to protect people.”

“If someone was coming into a member of parliament’s office … and was defecating in their offices, stealing product, injuring their staff or threatening them, we feel pretty confident this would have been dealt with already and we would have seen the laws change,” he said.