San Francisco Target store locks its entire product range behind security glass

A Target store in San Francisco has locked its entire product line behind security glass as crime spirals out of control in the city.

A video posted to TikTok on April 20 shows all items in the store that have been closed to customers.

According to geotagged images, some products at the Folsom Street store had been behind glass since at least October last year, WNCT reported.

The city’s residents continue to battle against rising crime, recently brought to light with the murder of Cash App CEO Bob Lee and the brutal broad daylight attack on the city’s former fire commissioner.

Industry groups have noted the problem with theft, with the National Retail Federation saying organized retail crime is costing stores about $100 billion a year, according to a survey of 2022.

In 2021, retailers saw a 27 percent increase in theft by organized crime gangs, the study found. To address the problem, they invested more money in safety and security measures to protect employees, customers and goods.

Earlier this month, Whole Foods announced it was temporarily closing one of its San Francisco flagship stores a year after opening, citing concerns that crime in the area is putting its workforce at risk. It followed Walgreens closing some of its stores in San Francisco in 2021 due to theft.

A Whole Foods spokesperson said the company closed the 65,000-square-foot grocery store on Trinity Place in San Francisco’s Mid-Market neighborhood “to ensure the safety” of the store’s team members.

The spokesperson said the move was a “difficult decision”, noting that the store will only close temporarily and all staff will be transferred to nearby locations for a period of time.

The flagship store opened on March 10, 2022, and the company called the design a tribute to “classic San Francisco.”

The location sold more than 3,700 local Northern California products, including produce from nearby farms and hundreds of wines from local vineyards, according to the company.

Whole Foods did not disclose specific reasons for closing its store.

The San Francisco Standard, an independent newspaper, reported that Whole Foods highlighted neighborhood crime and drug use as reasons for suspending operations, according to a source at City Hall.

Matt Dorsey, a member of the San Francisco Board of Trustees representing the district, wrote on Twitter that he was “incredibly disappointed but sadly not surprised by the temporary closure of Mid-Market’s Whole Foods.”

He said the neighborhood’s problems with shoplifting and drug-related crime are visible, noting the “neighboring drug markets” and “the many security issues associated with them” as well-known issues in the area.

Dorsey also said he is proposing a charter amendment, “The San Francisco Police Department Full Staffing Act,” to fully staff the city’s police force within five years.

“Whole Foods’ closure – along with many other security-related challenges we’ve seen lately – is Proof A as to why San Francisco can no longer afford not to solve our police understaffing crisis,” he wrote on Twitter.

In October 2021, Walgreens said it would close five more stores in San Francisco due to organized shoplifting.

SFGATE reported that Walgreens had closed at least 10 stores in the city since early 2019.

“Shoplifting at our San Francisco stores has continued to increase in recent months to five times our chain average,” despite the large increase in security, Walgreens spokesman Phil Caruso said.

Violent crimes in San Francisco, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, peaked in 2013 with 7,164 violent crimes, according to data from the California Department of Justice.

But they have declined significantly in recent years. According to data from the Major Cities Police Chiefs Association, San Francisco now falls in the lower middle of the pack when compared to several cities with similar populations.

San Francisco recorded 56 homicides each in 2022 and 2021, an increase of more than 36 percent from 2019, when there were 41 homicides, according to police data.

Despite the rise, San Francisco’s homicide rate is far below that of other cities of similar size, according to data from the Major Cities Police Chiefs Association.

Indianapolis, for example, saw 271 homicides in 2021 and 226 in 2022.

Jacksonville, Florida, meanwhile, witnessed 129 homicides in 2021 and 154 in 2022.

“Crime is worse than the data shows,” Stimson told Fox News this month. “People don’t report these crimes because if you have a prosecutor who is pro-criminal and isn’t going to enforce the law, the police aren’t going to go out and arrest someone if they know the case won’t be put on paper. ‘

Stimson points the finger at former DA George Gascon, who served between 2011 and 2019, as the city’s number one problem.

He says the San Francisco crime problem really took off between 2015 and 2016 as a result of Gascon’s controversial policies.

“That policy includes not prosecuting crimes, decreasing most crimes to misdemeanors, not asking for long prison terms even for people convicted of the worst crimes, and never asking for bail,” Stimson said.

Citing Justice Department data, Stimson said there were an average of 151 rapes per year when Gascon took office. In 2019, the number exploded to 346 per year.

“You always know with rape … the number of people who have actually been raped is much higher than the number of people who report being raped,” Stimson added.

Aggravated assaults also rose from 2,300 a year to about 2,600 during Gascon’s tenure.

Stimson also pointed to both Gascon and DA Chesa Boudin’s ousted policy of not prosecuting shoplifting.

“You’ve seen the videos of people just doing a five-finger discount, walking into Target, walking into Nordstrom Rack… and just walking out in daylight with $950 worth of stuff. They refused to prosecute any of that,” he said.

Stimson went on to address other issues facing San Francisco, including its status as a sanctuary city, the rise of the police movement, and major retailers, including Whole Foods and Walgreens, fleeing crime because of crime.

In the end, Stimson was hopeful, saying more arrests are happening and tent camps where crimes are happening are closing.

“But it’s still a safe haven, so illegal aliens, who represent a large percentage of those arrested, are not handed over to ICE even after being convicted,” he reluctantly admitted.

San Francisco Police Officers Association vice president Lt. Tracy McCray has said the neighborhood where Cash App founder Bob Lee was killed has witnessed at least 12 homicides this year alone.

The city’s Southern and Tenderloin counties, which have seen rising crime rates this year, have seen four stabbing incidents in the past week alone, including Lee’s.

‘We are understaffed, so only our presence on patrols is currently seriously lacking. It is to be expected that crime will see some increase, but I think we are now at an abyss where we can go one way or the other,” McCray said.

Lee, 43, was stabbed several times in the chest at 2:35 a.m. as he walked through the Rincon Hill neighborhood, in the Southern District, close to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

McCray says police are understaffed and the entire neighborhood is now at a tipping point.

A day later, the former San Francisco fire chief was brutally attacked with a metal crowbar just steps from his mother’s front door.

Disturbing cell phone footage shows a man wandering the nearby area with a metal crowbar in hand, though police have yet to confirm he is the attacker.

Don Carmignani, 53, was fighting for his life in hospital after the gruesome beating on April 5.

Friends close to the victim claim he was targeted by a “group of homeless people” as he left his mother’s home just outside the city’s Marina District.

Carmignani – who served as fire commissioner in 2013 – was reportedly slashed with a knife and had his skull fractured by the pipe.

His family has since decided to flee the city, friends say. Carmignani is expected to make a full recovery.

Boudin had been the target of a multimillion-dollar recall by residents who say San Francisco has become an increasingly unsafe place to live.