From the moment it opened in March 2022, Trinity Place Whole Foods in San Francisco has been plagued by troubles. In October 2022, managers were forced to cut hours owing to “excessive theft” and unfriendly customers.
Once syringes and pipes were discovered on the bathroom floor a month later, the business said customers would need a valid QR code to use the restrooms.
One of Downtown San Francisco’s major supermarkets has finally thrown in the towel and shut down within its first year of operation owing to rampant drug use, theft, and violence.
A representative from Whole Foods said in a statement Friday night that the store was closed because of employee safety concerns. The representative explained that the closure of the Trinity store was “temporary.” They will consider reopening their Trinity store if they are confident that their employees will safely return to work there.
Only days earlier, Cash App co-founder Bob Lee was fatally stabbed a little over a mile away, prompting a mass exodus from San Francisco.
San Francisco’s mayor, London Breed, has been scrutinized for handling a recent high-profile murder and an unrelated attack on the city’s former fire commissioner.
Meanwhile, San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey stated that a Whole Foods staffer informed him that all 250 shopping carts had been stolen.
In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Dorsey explained that Whole Foods could no longer ensure the safety of its employees because customers were “acting out” in the store.
Later that day, the Democrat tweeted that he would file a ballot issue next year to staff the city’s police department fully by 2029.
There has been a 7.5% increase in violent crime and a 20% increase in property crime in San Francisco over the past three years.
Residents have fled San Francisco because of the high crime rate; the county saw the second-largest decrease in population of any location in California (7.1%) between April 2020 and July 2022.
