Whole Foods announced its flagship store at Eighth and Market streets in downtown San Francisco is closing this week. Representatives say the closure is a result of continued safety concerns for team members working in the store.
This is not a surprise to many who have witnessed the rise in homelessness and crime around the city. Local news spoke to Whole Foods shoppers attempting to visit the store on Tuesday, only to realize it was closed. One said, “It's obvious. It's right where all the homeless people are. They come and steal and what I notice is the guards can't do anything for their safety.”
San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey Tweeted a thread on Monday saying:
I’m incredibly disappointed but sadly unsurprised by the temporary closure of Mid-Market’s Whole Foods.
He also announced a Charter Amendment that aims to get the San Francisco police department fully staffed in the next five years.
In a subsequent Tweet, he shared a video where he explains the Charter:
Today I announced plans for a 2024 Charter Amendment to solve our @SFPD understaffing crisis and help make progress to disrupt, dismantle and deter overt drug markets that are costing lives and diminishing our neighborhoods. San Franciscans deserve a fully staffed police force!
After loud and national calls by activists, politicians, and the media to defund the police over the last few years, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is now taking a different tack. Finally, some city leaders are seeing the need for a strong police force. Many commentators online are justifiably critical of the leftist leadership that has allowed the city to reach its current conditions.
One tweet listed some of the crimes that have occurred just in the last week:
San Francisco in the past week:
Closed Whole Foods because it’s not safe for workers
Starbucks are removing all tables to keep homeless out
Bob Lee was killed while in front of luxury condos
The fire chief was attacked and almost beaten to death by homeless
What did I miss?
The high profile stabbing of Cash app founder, Bob Lee, made news just a few days ago. The tech entrepreneur was stabbed in the street during early morning hours while on his way home from a meeting.
Regarding the Whole Foods closure, however, others are unwilling to see it as a crime problem. Implying it’s due to Whole Foods’ problematic strategy to set up shop in locations with potential for growth:
They were betting on rapid gentrification lol.
However, it’s undeniable that crime and homelessness has been an issue for local businesses. The same Whole Foods location restricted its bathrooms to paying customers last fall because of drug pipes and needles.
Nearby blocks of downtown, near Ikea, also reveal scenes of rampant homelessness, as shown in this video from Twitter:
Downtown San Francisco looking like this? WTF? Zombie apocalypse. Right across from @IKEAUSA You @LondonBreed I hope will learn a lesson from @WholeFoods near Civic Center. We want clean and safe streets! (@bettersoma @citizenj17 @elonmusk)
Dorsey, who made a few statements to local news, described shoplifters and drug dealers constantly plaguing Whole Foods. He explained that there is “Drug dealing and open air drug scenes,” and that, despite having 250 grocery carts when Whole Foods opened a year ago, “All of them were taken as shop lifting implements.”
Whole Foods is not the only business struggling with rising crime in large cities. Walmart closed four of its locations in Chicago, citing poor profits. And Starbucks closed stores in multiple locations, including six in Seattle last year.
The interim CEO at the time, Howard Shultz, made statements about the fact that “America has become unsafe” and the stores Starbucks closed were “not unprofitable.”
EXCLUSIVE: Today at an internal meeting CEO Howard Schultz said: "Starbucks is a window into America... we are facing things in which the stores were not built for... we're listening to our people and closing stores, & this is just the beginning. There are gonna be many more. 🧵
In the video, Shultz said, “This is just the beginning, there will be many more.” Nearly a year later, that statement is proving true.
