San Francisco crime forces Whole Foods to shut down

A recently built Whole Foods in San Francisco shut its doors on Monday due to an increase in violence in the area's downtown, CNN reported, but claimed that the closure is temporary.

A little more than a year after it first opened, the well-known grocery business closed its flagship shop in San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Standard.

“We are closing our Trinity location only for the time being,” a Whole Foods spokesperson told the local outlet in a statement. “If we feel we can ensure the safety of our team members in the store, we will evaluate a reopening of our Trinity location.”

According to a source at city hall, the corporation said that widespread drug use and rising crime were the reasons behind its choice.

After encountering "high theft" and aggressive customers, the Whole Foods shop already cut back on its hours in October of last year, according to a store manager.

After discovering syringes and pipes in the restrooms a month later, store officials restricted customer access to the restrooms. Due to the fact that many citizens are now working from home instead of commuting to offices in the downtown area, the city has also been affected by a lack of foot traffic.

Many small enterprises have closed.

Speaking of the Whole Foods closure, San Francisco’s District 6 supervisor Matt Dorsey said he was “incredibly disappointed but sadly unsurprised”.

“Our neighbourhood 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,” Dorsey said in a statement, reported The New York Post.

In order to guarantee that the San Francisco Police Department is fully staffed within five years, the Democrat claimed he was writing new laws.

According to The Standard, the department has lost 335 policemen since 2017 and is significantly understaffed.