quote:

The piece notes the city is in a "quandary" as it tries to pursue criminal justice reform while "debating how to manage rates of property crime that for years have been among the highest in the nation." While some residents are "appalled" by the crime, others have learned to "grudgingly accept this element of city living."

This is an older thread...
but tolerating crime has consequences:

Checkout's closed: Whole Foods FLAGSHIP San Francisco store closes after just one year because of rampant drug use in restrooms, violence towards staff - and theft of ALL 250 shopping baskets

Whole Foods opened a 'flagship' store in Downtown San Francisco in March 2022
By October last year operating hours were reduced amid theft and violence
The store has now closed down indefinitely citing safety concerns for staff

One of the largest supermarkets in Downtown San Francisco has closed down just one year after opening due to widespread drug use, theft and aggressive behavior towards staff members.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...co=related-replace-2

The residents will just use Amazon Whole Foods delivery until the drivers are all robbed and quit.

Honestly if I were Whole Foods I'd do like Kroger here, nothing but delivery of groceries to homes and business addresses, ware house the food and deliver.

Put the warehouse outside the city of SF to avoid the taxes and costs.

Shame I miss going to SF, wife and I lived out in the bay area on the peninsula, love the weather and area.

chellim, I wish you'd have mercy. A new thread would have been fine.

Whole Foods should have stayed open, counted the losses as a reduction of waste and/or donations to sustainable causes and really given their ESG score a significant boost.

^Financially yes, but from what I've read the primary concern was safety of their employees from criminal violence and drug-related activities.

Yeah, it's that bad. I was so glad to move away from that hellhole.

As long as I've been alive, that location has been an absolute hell-hole, a pit of humanity that has been allowed to fester. Twitter established their corporate HQ into a re-built building ten years ago, attempting to re-gentrify this area; many other tech companies followed. We know the rest of the story with lay-offs and acquisitions. The neighborhood is going back to being pathetic dump rather than a shiny dump like its been the last decade.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
^Financially yes, but from what I've read the primary concern was safety of their employees from criminal violence and drug-related activities.

Yeah, it's that bad. I was so glad to move away from that hellhole.

Easy, close the doors to restock, then, once stocked, all employees leave, the store opens the doors remotely and the good street people of SF can simply walk in and take whatever they like, of course you can't put the carts there, they'll steal them, so just stack the goods on boxes, no frozen or cold items.

ESG + 4!

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
They DEMANDED this.

Yeah I'm having real trouble giving a fuck.

San Franciscans are enjoying the consequences of their own choices. It is hard to feel sorry for them, but I do hope they will wake up in time.

That's gonna really hurt their ESG score!

quote:

Originally posted by 83v45magna:

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
They DEMANDED this.

Yeah I'm having real trouble giving a fuck.

I had some fucks to give once but I haven’t been able to find any in about 15 years or so.

The Democrat run cities are all failing.


Walmart Abandons Unprofitable Chicago Stores After Investing "Hundreds Of Millions" In City

https://www.zerohedge.com/mark...-never-making-profit

After two decades of losses and "hundreds of millions of dollars" invested in Chicago, Walmart is shuttering four unprofitable stores in the metropolitan area, reducing its store footprint by half in the crime-ridden city.

"The simplest explanation is that collectively our Chicago stores have not been profitable since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago – these stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years," Walmart wrote in a press release.

Indeed, Walmart has soured on Chicago - the Democratic stronghold that went from a once beautiful metro area into an absolute hellhole. According to Walmart, the decision came after considerable investment in the town.

"Over the years, we have tried many different strategies to improve the business performance of these locations, including building smaller stores, localizing product assortment and offering services beyond traditional retail. We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the city, including $70 million in the last couple years to upgrade our stores and build two new Walmart Health facilities and a Walmart Academy training center."

That said, the company hasn't lost all faith in the city but is willing to take a loss with the four remaining stores:

"The remaining four Chicago stores continue to face the same business difficulties, but we think this decision gives us the best chance to help keep them open and serving the community."

It sure wouldn't be good PR if Walmart left the metro area entirely.

Although Walmart didn't explicitly state why its stores were unprofitable, one can only assume that the city's 'soft-on-crime' policies were a contributing factor, as professional shoplifting rings count Chicago as a top-10 city to hit.

And last month, the retail giant closed its final two stores in Portland due to a retail theft wave.

Walmart and other retailers closing stores not just in Chicago but other big cities is a warning sign for Democratic mayors who can't get crime under control will face an exodus of businesses.

Hours before the announcement, Democrats picked Chicago to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

And just like that, the left wants to make this Walmarts fault. People like Beetlejuice Lightfoot cast aspersions on the company for “abandoning” thousands of people that have come to rely on them for everyday needs. Does this dumb bitch blame herself for the lawlessness that her administration created that ultimately pushed a company to shutter what are profitable businesses in less crime ridden locales? Heavens no! It’s the mean old Walmart for turning its back on them for… not wanting to lose millions of dollars to theft. Walmart is partially to blame out of political correctness- instead of clinging to the language that these stores are “unprofitable”, they should man up and spell it out that retail theft is the reason. Go ahead and admit that thieves in the community are ruining it for the law abiding ones. Just look at the language in this article; you’d think Walmart was really just some heartless monster that doesn’t care a whit about people

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2...s-are-not-profitable

Walmart plan to shut 4 stores by Sunday leaves customers perplexed: ‘You came in and filled a void — now you’re taking it away’

The Walmart Supercenter in Chatham is one of four stores in Chicago — along with supermarkets in Kenwood, Little Village and Lake View — that the company announced Tuesday will close. The supermarket chain called the sites “unprofitable.”

Regina Dickey went for an appointment at a new primary care clinic in Chatham on Tuesday. The clinic is newly furnished and close to home, and she thought she’d come again but was disappointed to learn she’d never get the chance.

Dickey, 38, is in fine health, but the clinic where she went and the store it’s attached to — a Walmart Supercenter on the South Side — is not, according to its owners.

The Supercenter is one of four Chicago supermarkets that Walmart announced Tuesday will close by Sunday, joining other grocery stores — particularly on Chicago’s South and West sides — that have closed in recent months.

In addition to the Chatham Supercenter, Walmart Health center and Walmart Academy, at 8431 S. Stewart Ave., the other stores closing are the Kenwood Neighborhood Market, at 4720 S. Cottage Grove; Little Village Neighborhood Market, at 2551 W. Cermak Road; and Lakeview Neighborhood Market, at 2844 N. Broadway.

“This is going to cause a lot of issues for people in the community,” Dickey said. “Not cool.”

Dickey said she shopped there and at the Kenwood Walmart regularly.

“It’s like they didn’t even give a thought to the people in these communities,” Dickey said.

More absurdity in the linked article…

"You'll own nothing and you'll be happy" -- Ida Auken, WEF.

Maybe the SF Chronicle has anointed itself as the tip of the spear.

I expected threads from 2021 would have been pruned by now.

As for San Francisco’s woes, there’s not a victim among them. They volunteered as guinea pigs for this social experiment.

Now they get to see what happens when you have a great climate, drugs a-plenty, income from dealing or stealing, and virtually zero consequences for bad actions (not necessarily illegal acts).

Me? I’m following sage advice and cleaning my rifle.

Why?

Because SanFran’s woes are repeated up and down the west coast, Seattle to San Diego, and like the current trans madness, it is spreading farther and farther, like rapidly metastasizing cancer.

I don’t know about the other Chicago locations, but highly doubt the Lakeview Neighborhood Market is closing because people are stealing from it. My guess is people in Lakeview don’t shop at Walmart. Of course, Lakeview may have changed since I lived there 20 years ago.

Democrat cities and states will never fail totally. Whenever the Democrats are in charge nationally they will bail them out to conceal their failure.

What I'm more interested in is people on a large scale have been voting against their own best interest. How does that work?

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
Checkout's closed: Whole Foods FLAGSHIP San Francisco store closes after just one year because of rampant drug use in restrooms, violence towards staff - and theft of ALL 250 shopping baskets

The funny thing is that I read IKEA, the home furniture mega store, is opening nearby later this year

I can imagine all sorts of problems with the street people with that store.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
I expected threads from 2021 would have been pruned by now.

The forum no longer auto-prunes. Not for quite some time. Presumptively, at some point, server space and computing power became cheap enough that keeping everything on the forum forever became economically feasible.

“Not cool” as a comment about the stores closing shows Regina is quite the thinker.