A strange and upsetting story unfolded yesterday afternoon at the Taoist Safeway on Mission Street. A woman was found dead in her car in the Safeway parking lot.
Neighbor Valerie was on the scene, and she says foul play does not appear to have been a factor:
I went to Safeway around 1 pm. I was driving in. and there were a ton of SFPD and SFFD cars/trucks that had just pulled into the parking lot. They went over to an older minivan that was parked on the right side (next to the taqueria), and the paramedics appeared to be attending to someone.
When I was checking out, I could see that there were still several cops/cars hanging out near the van, but all the fire department trucks and the ambulance were gone.
I asked the cashier what was going on. She said someone had died in their car. Apparently the woman was known to the Safeway staff; she went in often to eat samples and then would go into her van to sleep for a few hours. It is possible that the deceased was there for a full day.
Eventually, someone decided to call the cops and found the unfortunate scene. As I was leaving, they had it blocked off with crime scene tape.
PHOTO: Bernal Safeway from Bernal Heights, by Thomas Hawk
Bernalwood 
Unfortunate and sad.
“Samples” at Bernal Safeway?
I said the same thing about the samples. I go there sometimes two times a day, every day, and have never seen a sample.
Sad, regardless!
Let the record show that in my email to Todd, I also inquired about the mystery samples. I think I’ve only seen them on random Saturdays but never during the week.
glamorous!
A person dies in the parking lot of a Safeway, and the thread of comments is about food samples.
It’s Bernal’s Allen Iverson interview–“talking about practice.” (Look it up.)
Humanity has taken a hit. It would have been better had this not been treated like a “newsworthy” story (reported as a curiosity, for the most part) but one about a tragedy.
The blog needn’t be a place that mirrors the evening news, at its morose and prurient. When it does so, the shame is deafening.
Meanwhile instead of providing the decency to just link to the thing you thought yourself so clever to be referencing you babbled on about shame and prurience. Get over yourself.
There’s not a lot of additional information on this story to talk about. What do you want people to say?
Travis, your comment is obnoxious, but I sense you have the self-awareness to grasp that. Please reach over and get over yourself first, lad.
I’m not here to educate people about NBA basketball, but thanks for dribbling. (The place you linked to was not too precise, but people who go there will know a lot more about The Answer, I grant you that, Travesty.) I sympathize: You’re not from here, or else I think your mommy would have gotten you that dental work done a long time ago. Amazing things can be done today.
I feel the blog was not the proper place to even mention what amounts to a “random death” with–exactly as you state–no other details except prurient observation. To top it off, the subject became food samples being given away at Safeway. It feels awfully tone-deaf–or do you think that’s just fine? What if it was your friend in the car? Still fine for you?
If that is the extent of the responses, there should have been none, which would have saved me some time (and you, and time is of the essence: Call that dentist).
Otis, is personally attacking a stranger’s (perceived) background and personal appearance somehow more on-topic than food samples? Is it necessary?
To your original point, the post referred to the event as “upsetting”, and contains a statement from a person that witnessed the aftermath of the event. There were no other details at the time, and the lack of speculation and editorializing alone elevates this blog beyond most major news networks.
BTW – i believe “samples” refers to items that a penniless person can surreptitiously eat – like, you know, those open bags of chips one sees left lying around on shelves or half eaten apples. not the kind you find at
whole foods market etc. i think the safeway employee was being discreet.
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