Safeway is taking aggressive steps, including filing injunctions against specific individuals, in a fight to remove unauthorized signature-gatherers and restore sanity to store entrances. Safeway stores are popular spots for paid petition-signature-gatherers to gather, but the company says that some of these people are violating store policies, block entrances, and creating both a nuisance and safety hazard for customers. Some of these petition folks are calling the company's moves unconstitutional.
Safeway spokesperson Susan Houghton calls that claim "hilarious," and and she says that the move is mainly targeted at the worst offenders who have not properly applied to the store for permissions, and who in some cases set up tables and tents that partially block entrances. Also, she notes, these aren't just do-gooders trying to get the word out about causes, these people are being paid. "We want to be community-minded ... but what has happened is that it has become an industry."
Without Safeway, though, this means the petition people will be blocking more Muni entrances and crowding more into Dolores Park...
