SF Whole Foods to Close Due to Increased Crime in Area

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/whole-foods-in-downtown-san-francisco-closes-due-to-spiraling-crime/

by fortran77 • 3 years ago

31 37 3 years ago

monero-xmr2• 3 years ago

This is a dupe of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35520178

Which was flagged with 80+ upvotes and buried. Why an article about trade between Ancient Rome and India is front page worthy on Hacker News (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35516231), but the largest grocery store in the global hub of the tech industry closing because too many people are robbing it and doing drugs outside the front door, is a mystery to me. But I don't control the algorithms.

KerrAvon2• 3 years ago

because the source is notorious partisan bullshit vendor and whatever the actual cause of a closing of a random store, you can’t take them at face value. Remember the shoplifting epidemic at CVS which caused them to close stores in SF? Turned out that story was right-wing bullshit. Surprise, surprise.

nickpinkston2• 3 years ago

Thank you

lelanthran3• 3 years ago

because the source is notorious partisan bullshit vendor ... Turned out that story was right-wing bullshit.

CNN may be a notorious partisan bullshit vendor, but there isn't anyone who is going to call them "right-wing" with a straight face.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/11/business/san-francisco-wh...

notch898b3• 3 years ago

When I lived in the ghetto you could go up to a window with bars and ask for something behind the counter. I wonder if they could put all the food behind bulletproof glass with an attendant and have the attendant slide it through a prison style food tray or something? You could prepay using an industrial grade impact resistant point of sale machine on the other side, and stainless steel floors with drains could be used to wipe the grime down daily and make it easy to flush out anyone camping inside.

porkbeer• 3 years ago

Why would you spend millions to interact with the world like you are in a prison?

KerrAvon2• 3 years ago

please don’t link to partisan political bullshit

TheChaplain4• 3 years ago

The story seems real no matter where it is plastered; https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/11/business/san-francisco-wh...

NeutralForceUsr• 3 years ago

It's good to sometimes get out of your bubble, dude.

whateveracct3• 3 years ago

Is it the real reason though? There was the Walgreens that claimed to close due to crime but later admitted it wasn't just due to crime like they originally claimed.

Gotta be skeptical of this narrative. A lot of crime-hating HNers lap this up.

monero-xmr2• 3 years ago

Man those horrible yuppies on HN who hate crime

TheChaplain4• 3 years ago

Uhm, I think it is fairly normal to not like crime.

whateveracct3• 3 years ago

But most of them group a lot of things under "crime." For instance, drug use. Not saying that's great, but they equate walking past needles to violence.

nickpinkston2• 3 years ago

I wonder if this is similar to when Walgreens said they shut down their stores because of crime, but that this was actually just a cover reason for poor store performance.

Here's an NYT article on Walgreens admitting as much [1]:

"A Walgreens executive said this week that the company, which cited “organized” shoplifting as a reason to close five stores in San Francisco in October 2021, might have overstated the effect of theft on its business.

“Maybe we cried too much last year,” James Kehoe, the company’s chief financial officer, said during a Walgreens earnings call with investors.

Mr. Kehoe also said that the company had “probably” spent too much on security measures and that it might have mischaracterized how much theft took place in its stores...

The San Francisco Police Department’s data on shoplifting did not support Walgreen’s explanation for the store closings, according to an October 2021 analysis by The San Francisco Chronicle. The analysis said that while not all shoplifting incidents were reported to the police, one of the stores that closed had only seven reported shoplifting incidents in 2021 and a total of 23 since 2018."

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/business/walgreens-shopli...

diebeforei485• 3 years ago

The comments during the Walgreens investor call referred to the nationwide total and not specific to SF. There are stats specific to SF stores showing them to be a lot worse than other stores. These were presented at SF City Hall.

headsupftw• 3 years ago

Oh it's just partisan political bullshit you say? Enjoy your low crime rate in SF then. Just the other day Bob Lee got stabbed to death near SoMa but oh no it's just the repubs spinning the news for their gain!

mbgerring4• 3 years ago

The crime rate in SF is historically low, one crime occurring has nothing to do with the crime rate, facts don’t care about your feelings, sorry

AraceliHarker• 3 years ago

The crime rate in San Francisco is statistically low because what is considered a crime in other areas is not considered a crime in San Francisco.

https://startupdreams.substack.com/p/what-the-stats-about-cr...

kcplate4• 3 years ago

I am sure that SF could claim a cow is a chicken and write it into the local laws as such. However, convincing people outside of your city limits that cows are really chickens is a tad more difficult.

standardUser3• 3 years ago

"Increased drug use and crime near the Whole Foods on Eighth and Market, which opened just one year ago, contributed to the store’s closing"

First of all, what a dead stupid place to open a Whole Foods. Second, drug use isn't causing any problems. Actual crime, the kind with victims, is surely a huge problem. But ingesting drugs doesn't cause problems automatically. Forcing people to engage with the black market, and buy impure drugs, and do them on the street? Yeah, that can cause problems. But the simple act of getting intoxicated is not the problem that needs solving. That will always happen. Th problem is how mind-bogglingly stupid we are with how we deal with this fact.

notch898b3• 3 years ago

Being near intoxicated people, whether you agree or not, is unpleasant to many shoppers and especially families. Perhaps they are misguided but it is not good for business. You can call it wrong but I will shop pretty much anywhere alone no matter how drug infested , but will alter my shopping patterns in the city when with women or children in order to reduce their exposure to areas of known heavy intoxicant use.

lelanthran3• 3 years ago

Second, drug use isn't causing any problems.

What? For a retailer, having druggies standing around outside the store absolutely causes problems, of the form of lower sales.

In which place are you living in where shoppers don't mind engaging with drugged-out people just to get in the store?

standardUser3• 3 years ago

You don't even know what a druggie looks like. You're surrounded by druggies. You work with druggies. You just don't like the ones who don't have somewhere nice to go to do their drugs out of your sight.

TheChaplain4• 3 years ago

Second, drug use isn't causing any problems.

Tell that to those unfortunate WF employees who must clean out used needles and other paraphernalia from rest rooms.

standardUser3• 3 years ago

That's not a problem with people simply doing drugs, it's a problem with people not having the means to do drugs in a private space, like 90% of druggies do everyday.

whalesalad• 3 years ago

I used to live in Trinity Place. It was surrounded by ground zero tenderloin zombies. I can’t imagine why the dipshits at Whole Foods decided opening a “flagship” store there was a smart idea?

mbgerring4• 3 years ago

0% chance there is “increased” crime at this location since the Whole Foods opened up, everyone knows this has long been one of the worst parts of SF, nothing new here

notch898b3• 3 years ago

Is it impossible simply opening WF increased crime as it is a perfect shoplifting target? I saw a youtube video linked (sorry lost it, somebody here maybe point it out) where a guy bike touring SF literally pointed out how it was a perfect spot to shoplift and he constantly saw people doing it there.

mbgerring4• 3 years ago

I guess, on a narrow technical basis? But the article is trying to imply SF is “getting worse,” because right wing media believe SF is perpetually “getting worse”, but everyone who actually lives here already knew this is and has been one of the worst neighborhoods in SF.

So, sure, the Whole Foods opening could mean that some of the neighborhood’s crime was happening in the Whole Foods. But nothing about the neighborhood has changed recently that would have caused that.

Should also point out that DA Brooke Jenkins, who is far to the right of every elected official in the city and ran on giving the cops carte blanche to just throw everyone on the street in this neighborhood in jail, has not done anything to change it. And she’s been the DA since the Whole Foods opened. So, I don’t know what that tells you.

SF Whole Foods to Close Due to Increased Crime in Area

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