Proposal aims to address rising grocery prices, closing supermarkets in SF

A San Francisco supervisor’s proposal aims to address supermarkets closing in the city and the price of groceries climbing.

Supervisor Bilal Mahmoud introduced the Affordable Groceries Act at Tuesday’s San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting. The proposal borrows an idea from New York’s mayor, but with a local flavor.

“It could be partnering with a food bank to take over one of these vacant lots,” Mahmoud said of his proposal. “Or it could be buying the property and giving it to a grocery, at lower market, which is what Mamdani is doing in New York.”

Inflation has pushed supermarket prices up by about 3% compared to last year.

Adding to the affordability issues are new rules implemented in April by the Trump administration for SNAP, which is called CalFresh in the Bay Area. Many are expected not to qualify under the new rules.

Meanwhile, a combination of factors have prompted some big name grocers to close their doors in San Francisco.

Safeway in the Fillmore neighborhood closed in February of last year. In November, the Lucky Supermarket in the Bayview neighborhood shuttered.

There are community activists who said the two closures have created a bit of a food desert in those neighborhoods.

Mahmoud’s proposal would address the two problems by incentivizing grocers and pharmacy operators to open new outlets in the city through streamlining the approval process. It would also penalize outlets that close stores by taxing operators that shutter them and still hand on to the leases, which keeps new operators from moving in.

The proposal would then use those funds to open city-backed grocery stores.

Mahmoud said he has modeled his proposal with local markets that also accept vouchers from EatSF in mind. The whole idea is to provide access to all residents — regardless of income — to healthy food in their neighborhoods.

Tanis Crosby, executive director of the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, said food insecurity is worse now than during the pandemic.

“The reality is that here in the Bay Area, cost of living is really high,” Crosby said. “So it’s really important that we look towards what are the solutions we can take. Because it’s not about insufficient food that creates insecurity, it’s policy.”

If the proposal is passed by the Board of Supervisors, it would be put on November’s general election ballot.

Voters would have to approve the streamlining and tax idea, and the fund for city-backed grocers.