Whole Foods flagship San Francisco store closes down after just one year over ‘safety concerns’

One of the largest supermarkets in downtown San Francisco closed just a year after opening due to widespread drug use, theft and aggressive behavior towards employees.

Organic food giant Whole Foods opened a new “flagship” location on Trinity Place in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood in March 2022, hoping to revive footfall after two years of draconian COVID restrictions severely impacted area businesses. had hit.

But a Whole Foods spokesperson declared the store closed last night due to staff safety concerns.

“We are closing only our Trinity location for now,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “If we feel we can ensure the safety of our team members in store, we will evaluate a reopening of our Trinity location.”

That’s what a source at City Hall told me The San Francisco standard the company cited deteriorating street conditions surrounding drug use and crime near the store as the driving factors behind the closure.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Whole Foods for comment.

It comes just days after Cash App founder Bob Lee was stabbed to death just over a mile away as residents fled San Francisco amid rising crime rates.

The Trinity Place Whole Foods store has been in trouble since it opened its doors in March 2022, with managers cutting back hours in October due to “high levels of theft” and hostile visitors.

A month later, the store announced that customers would only be able to access the restrooms with a valid QR code after syringes and pipes were found on the bathroom floor.

Meanwhile, San Francisco supervisor Matt Dorsey claimed a Whole Foods employee told him that baskets were no longer available to shoppers because all 250 had been stolen.

Dorsey told the San Francisco Chronicle that people were “acting out” in the store and Whole Foods could no longer guarantee the safety of its employees.

“It’s clear to me that Whole Foods as an employer is very concerned about the safety of their employees, which is why they ultimately decided to close,” Dorsey said.

“I wish they hadn’t, but I’ve been there too and seen things that are unpleasant.”

The Democrat later announced in a series of tweets Monday that he would introduce a ballot measure next year to fully staff the city’s police force within five years.

His plan calls for a minimum staffing of 2,182 officers — a number previously recommended in an analysis the city uses to decide how many officers to hire. But the police force currently only has about 1,500 officers, according to the Chronicle.

To get his plan on the ballots next year, Dorsey would need a majority of the 11-member council to put his legislation to a vote. If that fails, supporters can start a signature campaign.

“Our neighborhood has been waiting a long time for this grocery store, but we are also well aware of the issues they’ve been experiencing with drug-related shoplifting, neighboring drug markets, and the many safety issues associated with it,” he wrote of the Whole Foods Shutdown.

He added, “Whole Foods’ closure – along with many other security-related challenges we’ve seen lately – is Exhibit A as to why San Francisco can no longer afford NOT to solve our police understaffing crisis.”

“San Franciscans — or at least those I represent in District 6 — are demanding solutions, and they have a right to expect that from those of us in City Hall. I hope my colleagues will support this effort. We owe our residents nothing less.”

Violent crime across San Francisco is up 7.5 percent over the past three years, while property crime is up 20.7 percent over the same period.

So far in 2023, the Tenderloin and the adjacent southern district of San Francisco alone have seen 1,687 larcenies, 286 burglaries, and 190 assaults. according to SFPD data from April 9.

San Francisco is experiencing an exodus of residents due to the crime rate – the county experienced the second largest population decline of any region in California between April 2020 and July 2022 at 7.1 percent.

At the same time, a report from San Francisco officials in August estimated that up to 20,000 people in the city would become homeless sometime in 2022.

Whole Foods closed its doors just days after Cash App founder Bob Lee was stabbed to death in San Francisco’s Southern District last week — one of four stabbing incidents that week alone.

Lee, 43, was stabbed several times in the chest as he walked at 2:35 a.m. in the city’s Rincon Hill neighborhood in the Southern District — just over a mile from the Whole Foods Trinity store.

San Francisco Police Officers Association vice president Lt. Tracy McCray said the police force is understaffed and the entire neighborhood is now at a tipping point.

‘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.

Locals told DailyMail.com they blamed the rising violence on the “soft-on-crime” progressive policies of former prosecutor Chesa Boudin, who was removed from office last year in a recall campaign.

It’s too liberal. Too many. And that’s what we pay for,” said one.

“Repeat offenders are back on the street in the blink of an eye and there’s nothing we can do about that. We’re scared.’

Lee, the father of two, moved from San Francisco to Miami last year because he was concerned about rising crime and homelessness in the West Coast city, according to friends.

He returned on a business trip and was attacked while walking through the Southern District.

Video provided to DailyMail.com revealed how Lee, the former chief product officer at crypto company MobileCoin, staggered down Main Street trying unsuccessfully to flag down a passing car for help.

Lee then stumbled 250 feet back down Main Street toward an apartment complex, but collapsed as he reached for the door entry system.

Bloodied and dazed, Lee himself was able to call the police to say he had been stabbed, but was unable to give his exact location.

First responders reached the fading technical director within six minutes, but by then it was too late.