A recently opened Whole Foods Market in San Francisco closed its doors on Monday over growing crime in the downtown area, according to a report.
The popular grocery store chain shuttered its SF flagship location a little more than a year after it opened, citing worker safety concerns, The San Francisco Standard reported.
“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.”
The company said rampant drug use and growing crime lead to its decision, a city hall source told The Standard.
The Whole Foods store had already reduced its hours in October of last year after experiencing “high theft” and hostile patrons, a store manager said.
A month later, store managers restricted use of its bathrooms to customers only after syringes and pipes were found in the restrooms, the publication reported.
The city has also been plagued by a lack of foot traffic as many residents are no longer going into offices in the downtown area and are instead working from home.
Countless small businesses have shuttered.
San Francisco’s District 6 supervisor Matt Dorsey said he was “incredibly disappointed but sadly unsurprised” by the Whole Foods closure.
“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,” Dorsey said in a statement.
The Democrat said he was drafting new legislation to ensure the San Francisco police department is fully staffed within five years.
The department has been down 335 officers since 2017 and well below its staffing goal, The Standard reported.
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