Complete Meals Market is likely one of the newest corporations to shut a retailer in San Francisco on account of public issues of safety.
Complete Meals quickly closed its flagship retailer in downtown on Tuesday, slightly greater than a yr after it opened. On the day of the closure, a voicemail greeting directed callers to Complete Meals’ eight different shops in San Francisco.
“To make sure the protection of our Group Members, we now have made the troublesome choice to shut the Trinity retailer in the interim,” a Complete Meals spokesperson stated in a press release.
Workers who labored on the downtown Complete Meals “will probably be transferred to certainly one of our close by areas,” the spokesperson stated. The downtown location, which is 65,000 sq. ft and positioned at 1185 Market St., may reopen if Complete Meals determines that the protection state of affairs has improved, in line with the spokesperson.
Crime has been within the highlight in San Francisco, with final week’s deadly stabbing of Money App founder Bob Lee within the Rincon Hill neighborhood, and final July the district lawyer stated San Francisco was “at a tipping level” relating to public security.
However metropolis statistics present that total violent crime in San Francisco fell 13.6% from 2019 to 2022, from 6,152 to five,315 incidents.
San Francisco has seen retailer closures linked to claims of crime earlier than, notably 5 Walgreens shops in October 2021. The corporate cited “organized retail crime” as the rationale for shutting down the shops, however quite a few skeptics, together with Mayor London Breed, stated the choice got here right down to economics.
In Los Angeles, the same story performed out in July, when Starbucks closed six shops on account of security issues like drug use and threatening conduct. Clients and residents questioned the choice and the reasoning behind the closures.