One of San Francisco’s Whole Foods grocery story locations is set to close because of the alarming increase in crime.
Whole Foods Closes it’s San Francisco Doors
San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Matt Dorsey said Wednesday that the Whole Foods closure in the city was a “gut punch” to the whole neighborhood and added that he wasn’t surprised.
Whole Foods said concerns about worker safety forced it to shut down. Incidents of theft in San Francisco have gained national attention, though crime has generally fallen over the past six years.
The company did not provide specifics on what the safety concerns were, but District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents the mid-Market neighborhood the store is located in, told SFGATE on Tuesday it’s what one might expect: retail theft and individuals suffering from mental illness and/or substance abuse having outbursts in the store.
“That was my supermarket and you see that stuff all the time,” Dorsey said. “Those are issues Whole Foods employees shouldn’t have to deal with. Do I wish Whole Foods had talked to us and found a way to stay? I do, but I refuse to blame them for responding to an issue we should have been addressing all along.”
The nearly 65,000-square foot location at Trinity Place in the city’s Mid-Market neighborhood shut its doors Monday to “ensure the safety” of its employees, a Whole Foods spokesperson said. A Whole Foods spokesperson said it was a “difficult decision to close the Trinity store.”
Affected employees will be transferred to nearby stores.
Adding More Police
Dorsey said he’s convinced that adding more police officers would ameliorate the problems that led to the Whole Foods closure. He said that when the department is understaffed and the number of full-duty officers is the lowest it’s been in decades .
One reason is because it diverts resources to higher priority calls such as homicides and assaults, as opposed to retail theft.
He added that he was proposing a charter amendment “to get to a fully staffed police department within no less than five years.”
“I don’t have a lot of confidence that City Hall is going to solve this problem,” he said. “I have pulled the research, looked at all the mayors’ proposed budgets over the years, and see that the police budget is often the first people look to cut.”
Critics Blame Gov. Newsome
Critics blamed Democratic leadership following the announcement as some described it as a “failed city.”
“San Francisco is a failed city. It cannot protect the safety of its residents, tourists, or businesses. Gov. @GavinNewsom needs to halt his presidential run and send in the national guard to shut down the dangerous and deadly open air drug markets,” journalist and author Michael Shellenberger wrote on Twitter.
Bob Lee, a 43-year-old tech innovator who founded Cash App, was stabbed to death earlier this month in San Francisco.
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Of course, the evil jerk, gruesome newsom’s got his filthy paws in it! And he has the gull to go to Florida and criticize DeSantis? People are leaving
cal. in groves. I wish that I could afford it. Being stuck in a toilet is no fun. But I’m old, and will leave evil, disgusting world. You can have it!