This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge.
It’s yet another story of a major company leaving a U.S. city: this time, it’s a Whole Foods in San Francisco that is closing after barely being open for a year. The location in question is a 64,000 “flagship” Whole Foods store that you just know the company wouldn’t be closing down unless things truly had run amok.
The Whole Foods Market at Eighth and Market Streets is reportedly shutting down this week due to concerns about safety.
The company said: “We are closing our Trinity location only for the time being. If we feel we can ensure the safety of our team members in the store, we will evaluate a reopening of our Trinity location.”
A report from the San Francisco Standard said that “deteriorating street conditions around drug use and crime near the grocery store” are the reasons it is closing.
The location had already cut its hours as of October last year, due to “high theft” and “hostile visitors”, the report says. Syringes and pipes were found in the restroom last year, prompting the store to also implement new bathroom rules around November 2022.
“They just barely opened up,” one nearby neighbor told The Standard. “I’ve seen security run into the store real quick before, like, something happened.”
Supervisor Matt Dorsey said on Twitter: “I’m incredibly disappointed but sadly unsurprised by the temporary closure of Mid-Market’s Whole Foods. Our neighborhood waited a long time for this supermarket, but we’re also well aware of problems they’ve experienced with drug-related retail theft, adjacent drug markets, and the many safety issues related to them.”
He responded with a call to – you guessed it – fund the police: “Today, I’m waiving privilege to publicly announce a drafting request I’m working on with @Stefani4CA for a Charter Amendment entitled the “San Francisco Police Department Full Staffing Act,” which will get San Francisco to a fully staffed police department within 5 years.”
I’m incredibly disappointed but sadly unsurprised by the temporary closure of Mid-Market’s Whole Foods. (1/7) https://t.co/lthpC90xTL
— Matt Dorsey (@mattdorsey) April 10, 2023
Recall earlier this year we wrote about Target exiting from downtown Philadelphia for similar safety concerns. They followed in the footsteps of Wawa, who we noted last year had enough of Philadelphia’s crime and also picked up and left shop at several locations in Center City.
Whole Foods follows the lead of companies like Walgreens, which have also shuttered businesses in San Francisco.
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