SAN FRANCISCO - Last month, Safeway filed a lawsuit against the city of San Francisco over its law that bans stores with pharmacies from stocking tobacco products, the San Francisco Weekly reports. The grocery store chain says the law gives retailers not selling prescription drugs a competitive advantage.
The lawsuit labels the ban "arbitrary and capricious," and "a denial of Safeway??s due process rights under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution."
A city attorney spokesman claimed the suit had no merit. "We think the lawsuit is frivolous, and we believe the court will dismiss the case," said Jack Song.
The 2008 law has unleashed a barrage of lawsuits, such as one by Philip Morris, which was dismissed. The Board of Supervisors, in response to a lawsuit filed by Walgreens, amended the legislation by adding all stores with pharmacies to the list of retailers who cannot sell tobacco.
That revision triggered Safeway??s lawsuit, which said that the law was trying "to distinguish between retail grocery stores without licensed pharmacies and those with licensed pharmacies does not in any principled way justify the unequal and prejudicial treatment afforded to retail grocery stores with pharmacies somewhere on their premises."
Song said the city will win despite the newest legal challenge. "We??re doing exactly what the California Court of Appeals told us to do. They asked us to treat all stores with pharmacies the same, and that's exactly what we're doing now" he said.
"We believe the SF ordinance unfairly penalizes only those retailers that provide pharmacy services to the public. Safeway is first and foremost a retail grocery store that happens to sell health and wellness products. There are many other stores in the city that provide these same products but without a pharmacy. Yet they are still allowed to sell tobacco," said Susan Houghton, Safeway spokeswoman.
"We??re providing food and products to our customers who want them. It??s choosing one lawful business over another. And we want to be able to sell the products and services our customers desire to purchase," she said.