{"id":393639,"date":"2026-07-10T17:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T17:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/393639\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T17:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T17:35:09","slug":"amazon-interferes-with-san-franciscos-attempt-at-grocery-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/393639\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon interferes with San Francisco\u2019s attempt at grocery revival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">San Francisco has put its attempt to revive grocery store activity on hold.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">The Affordable Groceries Act will not appear on the November ballot, and Amazon is one of the businesses standing in the way, according to the San Francisco Standard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">The measure calls for a vacancy tax on empty storefronts. Some pharmacy and grocery chains still hold leases to buildings in the city that they closed in recent years. The tax would apply only to stores currently serving shoppers in San Francisco for their empty retail spaces. It would also create incentives through tax credits and streamlined permitting for grocery stores and pharmacies wanting to move into vacant areas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">The measure would also establish an affordable grocery fund consisting of taxes collected on empty storefronts and private donations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">A lobbyist for Amazon threatened the company could assemble a campaign against the tax and wanted lawmakers to exempt a vacant Whole Foods store on Market Street from taxes. Supervisor Connie Chan refused to grant the exemption.<\/p>\n<p data-component=\"related-article\" class=\"RelatedArticle\">Related:<a class=\"RelatedArticle-RelatedContent\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supermarketnews.com\/food-accessibility\/instacart-explores-new-food-desert-delivery-partnership\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Instacart explores new food desert delivery partnership<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Supervisor Bilal Mahmood told the Standard that Amazon \u201cis in full overdrive trying to kill this ballot measure\u201d and said the company does not want to be held accountable for the vacant stores.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">The Whole Foods on Market Street closed in 2023 after operating for just over a year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Mahmood said both San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and Chan, who chairs the Budget Committee, opposed the measure, which lawmakers pulled from Wednesday\u2019s Budget and Finance Committee agenda. Before a measure appears on the ballot, the full Board of Supervisors must hear it by late July. The Budget and Finance Committee\u2019s decision makes that chance impossible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Chan believes the measure still needs work, and when she heard Mahmood planned to amend it, she believed it was not ready for the ballot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Meanwhile, New York City continues to move forward with a plan to open a network of city-run grocery stores. Officials have <a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supermarketnews.com\/food-accessibility\/nyc-mayor-reveals-where-first-city-run-grocery-store-will-open\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">established<\/a> two locations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco has put its attempt to revive grocery store activity on hold. The Affordable Groceries Act will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-393639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}