Soon there will be three fewer department stores for looters to pick clean in San Francisco.
Nordstrom, Nordstrom Rack, and Saks Off Fifth are all bailing out of what used to be a safer and more vibrant city. Nordstrom cites “rampant criminal activity” and blight as the chief reasons it’s pulling up stakes.
Nordstrom in SF is closing over “rampant criminal activity,” following the closure of Whole Foods, Walgreens other shuttered stores for the same reason. Lost jobs, less tax revenue, increasing blight. https://t.co/9dUCkDYJnq
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) May 2, 2023
As we’ve reported, Whole Foods closed a key store recently in what used to be a lovely area before drug-addled “homeless” people and “organized retail theft” gangsters began stealing the merchandise. The city “leaders” chose not to enforce laws against tent-dwelling, fentanyl zombies, and crackheads. As a result, the people who are not tent-dwelling fentanyl zombies and crackheads decided to follow the employers and leave. This is what we call a market tell.
When Walgreens closed five stores, Mayor London Breed claimed the retailer did it only to cut costs. It was true. Walgreens got tired of – together now – tent-dwelling fentanyl zombies, crackheads, and organized retail theft gangs stealing its stuff. The pharmacy and all-purpose store had to spend fifty times more on security for its San Francisco stores than its others. Security staff could only wave at thieves as they walked out with $950 worth of stuff.
This just happened at the @Walgreens on Gough & Fell Streets in San Francisco. #NoConsequences @chesaboudin pic.twitter.com/uSbnTQQk4J
— Lyanne Melendez (@LyanneMelendez) June 14, 2021
California and San Francisco have become sanctuaries for addicts and criminals. They can rip off $950 worth of loot before it becomes a felony. Now, after these “leaders” agitated to go easy on criminals, there are more criminals. That which is rewarded is repeated.
The percent of shoplifting cases ending in arrest in San Francisco declined from 62% in 2013 to 17% in 2021
Big declines occurred after the passage of Prop. 47 in 2014, which decriminalized the shoplifting of items valued under $950, & after election of new D.A. in 2019 pic.twitter.com/dC6EgbiRRq
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) June 15, 2021
Abercrombie & Fitch left for the same reason. Ditto for Anthropologie. H&M and Uniqlo had to close most of their stores because San Francisco’s honored-citizen crackheads kept ripping them off.
Nordstrom noticed. On May 2, the retailer announced it was closing its anchor position at the posh Westfield San Francisco Center mall at the end of the Powell Mason cable car line. They’re pulling out in August.
The high-end department store cited crime and safety as reasons why it’s closing its anchor store near the end of a cable car line that is a beloved tourist attraction. But Nordstrom also pointed to the problem of less foot traffic in that part of the city.
Oh, there’s plenty of foot traffic, but they’re homeless crackheads and criminals, not shoppers.
Typical downtown San Francisco in one photo 👇 pic.twitter.com/VCZQ43Ls3H
— Old Fashioned SF (@powellmarket415) April 29, 2023
Look, we know the mall business is getting tired, but this wasn’t a typical mall in the ‘burbs. It’s a curated collection of some of the finest retailers in the land in a downtown setting, easily reached by tourists and townies with a short walk or cable car ride.
But Nordstrom is bidding San Francisco adjö and it’s taking its Nordstrom Rack store with it. And Saks Off Fifth is no dummy. It’s leaving its location near the Nordstrom Rack.
Fewer shoppers are walking around on San Francisco streets these days because there are fewer employers occupying office buildings in San Francisco to employ them. Woke high-tech companies are leaving in droves or giving the city an Irish goodbye by maintaining a presence in California but growing in other states. Taxes, tyranny, and regulation are too much for even woke tech company moguls.
San Francisco is killing itself. Too bad the people running it don’t know CPR.
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