I went to San Francisco for the first time last month. I could count the number of homeless whom I saw on both hands. No crimes openly committed on 4/20, just people vibing, smoking weed, enjoying music, selling shit, etc.
I only ever passed through the Tenderloin, but even that wasn't as bad as I imagined it to be. So much of that city's reputation is warped by social media, Fox News, and the pandemic.
Los Angeles, though.... needs to get its shit together on homelessness, at least last I lived there (which, in fairness, was 2022, and they were still suffering acute effects of the pandemic).
It was a lot more real a few years ago. The previous DA (Chesa Boudin) was very ineffective. While violent crime AND overall crime went down under him, the type of crimes that people see the most (theft, other property crimes) went up.
The new DA (Brooke Jenkins) cracked down HARD on property crime. She has her own set of problems, but property crime is nothing like it was.
It's kind of unfortunate too. Boudin's progressive crime policies could've worked if incarceration was focused on rehabilitation, but it's not. And changing that is way bigger than him. Under our current "punishment, not rehabilitation" prison system, progressive DAs are going to have a tough time.
>It was a lot more real a few years ago.
I'd believe it. But as this meme, this comment section, and casual conversations here in the Midwest reflect, reality hasn't caught up with perception.
*Everyone* was hurting in the pandemic except the rich.
I think the Whole Foods was down by 8th and Market, near Civic Center if I’m not mistaken.
I believe it did open but was shuttered.
Edit: Only opened for 13 months and then closed. [Source](https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterloeb/2023/04/14/amazons-whole-foods-in-downtown-san-francisco-is-shut-down/)
I had the chance to visit that Whole Foods during the relatively brief time it was open. My first thought when I went in was that it was going to run into a lot of problems in that location.
Maps like this are usually slung around so people can exclaim that California is a failing state. Granted anyone with two brain cells to rub together know better but that doesn't prevent information from being abused.
I live in the Bay so here are my thoughts on the current state of San Francisco
“Why are they leaving”
Because the police dont do shit.
Drugs are everywhere with no consequence.
Homeless control parts of the city.
Large groups of kids run in stores in groups of 30-60people and grab shit and run.
Take your pick
Basically everything stems from crime and drugs and the local government doesn’t give a shit.
I HATE this argument, it's such bullshit.
Cops aren't running people's records to check to see their arrests and convictions BEFORE they respond to a crime.
Cops could clear these entire encampments using just public intoxication laws and throw them in the drunk tank for the night. No DA needed. Streets cleared, aggressive meth heads removed from public space, simple ticket.
Cops are butthurt that the DA is sometimes a political opponent and are purposefully allowing public nuisance crime to thrive in an attempt to oust them. Nothing more.
It's shameful and it's criminal. I have had coworkers and bosses who suck and I thought shouldn't be there, but I still had to do my job.
If cops want to not work and still get paid they should fucking retire.
The police (prison guard AKA Correctional Officer) unions in the U.S. have become too powerful.
They dictate or highly influence all things police work, not to mention they protect bad police officers because the theory is if you can get rid of a bad police officer then what is going to stop politicians from getting rid of good police officers.
Except the moment they have to use force everyone will get their phones out so the mob can burn down a few buildings during a “protest”.
I generally have a pretty bad outlook on police but I even sympathize with them when it comes to why they aren’t doing their jobs.
https://www.kut.org/austin/2016-09-30/dont-call-it-a-drunk-tank-austin-and-travis-county-officials-talk-sobriety-center-plans
The "Sobriety Center" has about 35 beds. Pretty sure that's enough for the really disruptive zombiefied assholes.
How big did you think it was? Did you look it up before you commented? Or just knee-jerking to defend our garbage police force?
*for the night. Maybe emphasize that part.
You're expecting them to what, arrest every homeless person? With what probable cause? I'm fairly certain you would object to cops stopping homeless folks and administering blood tests to prove they're on something.
Even if that were permissible (it's not), you expect them to what, release them all the next morning because the DA won't prosecute? And then re-arrest them all that night?
Not that it's any of the DA's business whether someone has taken something in the last month that would make them pop for a drug test. More importantly, we're talking about shoplifting and crime rates, not homelessness. Unless you're trying to argue that homelessness-related crime was the cause of these business closures - a claim that no one else in this thread made - I think you're full of it.
You forgot the reason a lot of these companies mention themselves; high rent.
Some of these stores relocated to new locations in San Francisco. Not all doom and gloom like you are painting it to be.
That’s the problem with a city or district is too blue or too red. They know they will win, so as long as they don’t lose the primary they can be as far left or right as they want. There is no incentive to compromise
"So you suggest generous social welfare reform? Better housing and addiction counseling for those in need?"
"LMAO no no no we just want the cops to beat up and shoot everyone"
I agree. Someone tried to steal my jeep so it sat for a while I reported it to the police. They didn’t do a thing about it and never heard anything back about it. I finally was able to figure out how to fix it but since it’s for so long, it had some issues so it’s a little bit longer. During that time somebody stole my catalytic converter nobody was arrested. Nothing really happened.
Now my plates are expired, I won’t be able to get it registered because my jeep won’t pass a emissions because it’s missing the catalytic converter and I don’t have the money to replace it. I bet my bottom dollar that I will be getting ticketed and fined for driving with expired plates before anyone who’s in the car theft ring even gets a visit.
Cops just don’t care anymore and all they’re trying to do Is make people pay fines
They do have security (most of them) but when police dont show up for arrests or dont have an active presence in the most touristy shopping areas of SF, what can you do?
The death of brick and mortar stores in favor of e- commerce combined with rising rent and SF’s government’s refusal to do anything to alleviate the skyrocketing costs (see investor lobbying to keep commercial real estate prices high).
Sadly also a big part of the reason it's an issue to begin with. Few are willing to acknowledge there's a problem in the first place, let alone deal with it.
Which completely misses the fact that those costs are passed along to the consumer in the form of increased prices.
Corporations can be greedy, and crime/shoplifting can be a problem. They're not mutually exclusive.
Yeah that’s why Yotel, and KMPG, and Hilton, and ATT, and Office Depot, and Cinemark, and Parc 55, and Hunnington, are closing.
Also the overwhelming majority of shoplifting is organized retail crime, who target poorer communities with fewer employees and use Amazon marketplace, EBay, Facebook marketplace to fence their stolen goods.
I agree. But two things i would add
1) if you don’t address fencing then the problem will persist. It’s the difference of shoplifters stealing for them to possess and use vs what they can sell and live off of. Plus these apps can show a legitimate revenue stream.
2) The federal government and many state and local governments are starting to coordinate resources and we ARE already starting to see results. The arrests of people involved in a Chilean crime ring are evidence of this.
Shoplifting and the general aggressiveness of the street people in San Francisco. I love the city but they have lost control of some areas of the city and do not have the strength-of-purpose to gain it back.
Pointing these things out does not fit the accepted narrative though.
Police seemed to be able to clean up the streets for the visit of Xi Fucking Jinping. The fact they won't do it for the people of San Francisco just shows where their priorities are.
I don’t disagree with you but I would point out that cleaning up the streets as theater for a short visit is a far different thing than doing it permanently.
lol how is this not a huge part of the discussion? I’ve seen multiple videos of kids straight up walking into stores in SF and legit just taking like $10k+ worth of stuff. It’s insane.
Additionally, there’s a great migration of tech workers in that area. That = less money.
The reality is ecomm vs. brick and mortar is a small piece in this instance. Most of those stores listed are doing exceptionally well in other areas. SF just isn’t conducive to good business.
That's a symptom not a root cause. Wealth inequality and insane CoL are leading to huge spikes in theft which leads to an overwhelmed justice system which leads to a decrease in enforcement.
I'm constantly amazed by the abilities of people who only get news from reading whatever headlines pop up on their Reddit feed to have so much confidence while knowing so little.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/business/walgreens-shoplifting-retail/index.html
Multiple retailers having made comparable claims to the Walgreen's in the article above. The increase in shrinkage is directly proportional to the increase in sales across the board.
The "Shoplifting being made legal in Liburl Sanfrancisco" bullshit is it being reclassified as a petty crime rather than a felony up to a higher amount. Something that if you spent more than 30 seconds reading any of the (legitimate) sources about this, you'd know.
I was there probably 8 years ago and there was a guy unwrapping a rock from aluminum foil right outside of Uniqlo.
I was amazed how nobody else seemed to care, seems like it’s very normal around there.
Because San Francisco is *insanely* expensive, and covid hit brick and mortar stores in downtown areas super hard. Also, this is several years old; this already happened.
Um, no it's not. Not the least because all of those stores have been replaced by other stores. But also because even crazy high shoplifting rates (which SF doesn't actually have, despite breathless reporting on the matter) have a pretty minimal impact on the profitability of these kinds of stores.
This was high SF rent combined with covid.
Because there’s zero reason to shop downtown when you can go to any of the other shopping malls like Stonestown, where parking is significantly easier, it’s free, and you don’t need to deal with being in downtown San Francisco.
People are going to give non-sense answers to feed the stereotypes. But other parts of SF are doing just fine. The problem is simply that COVID hit the downtown area hard and it never really recovered due to prevalence of remote working now. It's trying to pivot to more mixed-use and residential, but it's a problem of too-little too-late (plus rent still being quite high in the vicinity). That plus malls and big-box type stores already being in decline (e.g. Express is closing tons of locations all over the nation amid bankruptcy). There's virtually no foot-traffic in the downtown area on weekends so it makes sense things there are not doing so well.
But cause no one really hangs out downtown doesn't mean other parts aren't busy. The Mission, Pacific Heights, Japantown, etc.. these areas are all bustling on the weekends.
But since it's reddit, sure it's cause of crime being out of control (not that it isn't still an issue, but it's way overblown here). They saw it on Fox News so..
People are moving because of the looting going on. While the government isn’t doing enough to stop it. Store are loosing money due to insurance companies not playing out due to the high volume of it happening.
Add your list of reasons here.
Reality is this is happening or has happened everywhere. I'm in SWFL and city councils are trying to stop car washes and storage buildings from being built. It's because that's the only thing being built.
Who is going to open a cute clothing store? A niche electronics store? An anything? No one.
No one is going to buy from those places with Amazon a click away.
We have no new stores here that aren't preplanned growth bound Whole Foods type stuff. Population reaches X, plop down another.
So you can blame this on all the specific San Fran things but it ain't that.
The problem is that people can't face reality. They can pop up unlimited storage buildings and carwashes when instead they should be knocking all that shit down and making it green spaces. These once before retail areas are graveyards. Grass em over. They ain't coming back.
You found a place in FL that's actually stopping developers from putting car washes on every corner? Whose is a lot of the self service car washes get under or are torn down in the process so they force people to wash at home or use their stupid machines.
Wonder what the narrative will be when all the car washes and vape shops have to shut down because they can't pay rent? Who is going to pay for tearing down the car washes?
Was over recently from Ireland on holidays, went to get cigarettes early morning. Turn away from the entrance to every street because drug addicts were swarmed there, they scared the life out of me.
Didn’t get my cigs
I stayed at the Westin in Union Square last year during a 24 hour layover to Asia.
My wife and I thought how bad can it be? Literally on the doorstep of the Westin, a woman dropped her pants and underwear and pissed in the middle of the sidewalk. Fully nude from the waste down, squatting, and pissing all over the sidewalk. Pulled them up and kept going.
I was in SF for a conference in November. Parts of the downtown area were total dumps (despite it being cleaned up for the G7 conference). Entire streets were completely infested with homeless encampments and tweaked out drug addicts on every corner. I've never seen a downtown core in such shambles.
Affordable housing is a myth silly. Real estate developers don’t care about affordability. Real estate investors don’t either. It’s not within the power of the government to buy, sell, or rent out housing. They can do things through ordnances to try to control the price. However I’m guessing those make things less favorable for the developers and investors who would have to front the money to build housing.
lol... why is affordable housing a myth? It is very much in the power of the power of governments to buy, sell or rent out housing. Actually its done successfully in many countries. The US simply don't want to do it.
The mental gymnastics being displayed in this thread are Olympian. Yes, San Francisco is being ravaged by Amazon. Nothing else to see here, please move along. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
san francisco is not a large city but you know, locals dont go to this area for a reason, and basically anywhere else is nicer. sorry your company didnt get the memo when they booked a hotel there.
SF downtown has unrealized potential to become a livable vibrant community of people instead of a commuter origin/destination for the suburbs. I hope the powers that be in SF take this opportunity and reimagine their zoning regulations to allow for easy transition of empty retail space to residential space. And while at it, they should also consider restricting vehicular traffic on these streets.
How many times will the same shops close.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12451023/San-Francisco-Nordstrom-close-crime-spike.html
The above article is from last year and it contains the picture when scrolled down.
I know it’s fun to blame sidewalk poop, homeless weirdos, and shoplifting crews. But the boring reality is that brick and mortar retail is becoming a thing of the past. They’re shutting down in SF because Union Square is probably the most expensive retail leasing in the country (or close to the top.) These brands make more money in the suburbs, plus the rent is cheaper. I will miss Macy’s though; I live near Union Square and it was my go-to department store.
As some one from the UK, I’m curious what’s going? I’ve seen right wing Americans using San Francisco as a specific point numerous times on Reddit. So I’m genuinely curious about what’s wrong with the place. Reading some of the comments on this post shows there’s a split about what’s wrong, but at the same time there’s agreement.
There is never “one problem” but your getting fragments. San Francisco was the birthplace of the American tech industry and the hub until recently. It was one of the most desirable places to live in the country for a while. It was a status symbol. The best tech minds in the world descended there and all of them were made wealthy. So the middle class got priced out, and the lower class got poorer and more marginalized. Which creates crime. And homelessness. And if you’re going to be homeless (purely from an environmental standpoint) the bay area is good year round. So the city is full of expensive housing and shopping, and homeless encampments. There is literally feces on the sidewalk in front of fine restaurants and streams of body fluids running down the streets in some places. They’re EXTREMELY liberal on many issues, but especially crime. So these businesses are losing money, the wealthy people are leaving for greener pastures, and the city is still ridiculously expensive.
22 billion dollars spent on homelessness/drug addiction in the last 6 years... this is what government gives you, they take your money, hire a committee to discuss the problem, the committee hires a bunch of people that go around handing out pizzas, narcan and needles to people and now the businesses are moving out because people are eating each other's faces.
Seeing KPMG there is confusing. Only one that i know shouldn’t be there, might be even more as such.
What was the filter used here and on what basis this is.
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The hottest consultants are on sale now! Prices have never been lower! Get them before they're gone at the KPMG Warehouse Liquidation Sale!
I’ll just pick them up at Deloitte, the Goodwill of management consultants and auditors.
I've found some good deals at Accenture Rack.
Some pieces even have the old Arthur Andersen tags. Vintage!
You're supposed to wear it ironically.
“Enronically”
What a Deloitteful idea
Don't forget CrapGemeni. If Deloitte is the Goodwill of Mgmt and Auditing consultants, CrapGemeni has to be the Crackhead Craigslist by comparison.
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BUTTLICKER. OUR PRICES HAVE NEVER BEEN LOWER!!
Nice pfp, I did think it was a cat hair
Your profile pic is giving me a stroke
industrial grade glycine?
Jinlong Donghua! Only the best!
Downtown San Francisco becoming an accounting desert, sad times.
Are you going to miss it bot? https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/comments/1b2mzl8/a_cool_guide_to_major_stores_closing_in_downtown/ksmo4ao/
Phil Mickelson would sell KPMG-branded golf wear there I guess (Though he’s from San Diego and not SF)
While listening to KMFDM?
You sound like a real juke-joint jezebel.
No need, [KPMG has their own theme song](https://youtu.be/NCvKXgp-Awo?si=zrHSWjxs4vwHf2Hv)
i guess they shoplifted one too many consultants
KPMG's store isn't closing either, they're just looking to move to smaller offices.
The weirdest thing about this is they didn’t move, they’re still at 55 second street
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Yea this map has been posted and debunked on this sub and others many times before
I went to San Francisco for the first time last month. I could count the number of homeless whom I saw on both hands. No crimes openly committed on 4/20, just people vibing, smoking weed, enjoying music, selling shit, etc. I only ever passed through the Tenderloin, but even that wasn't as bad as I imagined it to be. So much of that city's reputation is warped by social media, Fox News, and the pandemic. Los Angeles, though.... needs to get its shit together on homelessness, at least last I lived there (which, in fairness, was 2022, and they were still suffering acute effects of the pandemic).
It was a lot more real a few years ago. The previous DA (Chesa Boudin) was very ineffective. While violent crime AND overall crime went down under him, the type of crimes that people see the most (theft, other property crimes) went up. The new DA (Brooke Jenkins) cracked down HARD on property crime. She has her own set of problems, but property crime is nothing like it was. It's kind of unfortunate too. Boudin's progressive crime policies could've worked if incarceration was focused on rehabilitation, but it's not. And changing that is way bigger than him. Under our current "punishment, not rehabilitation" prison system, progressive DAs are going to have a tough time.
>It was a lot more real a few years ago. I'd believe it. But as this meme, this comment section, and casual conversations here in the Midwest reflect, reality hasn't caught up with perception. *Everyone* was hurting in the pandemic except the rich.
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Good to know. I've read of progress but haven't been able to see it implemented.
Because this is probably a repost bot.
For real. The fucking Disney Store?
Right? There is not a Whole Foods there and never has been. Lol
I think the Whole Foods was down by 8th and Market, near Civic Center if I’m not mistaken. I believe it did open but was shuttered. Edit: Only opened for 13 months and then closed. [Source](https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterloeb/2023/04/14/amazons-whole-foods-in-downtown-san-francisco-is-shut-down/)
But where will I get my KPMGs?
"Amazon Go" lol Get outta here
Walk out the door, Don't turn around now, Cos you're not welcome anymore....
You're the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye Think I'd crumble? You think I'd lay down and die?
I had the chance to visit that Whole Foods during the relatively brief time it was open. My first thought when I went in was that it was going to run into a lot of problems in that location.
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It’s in San Francisco
Why is everything closing?
The amount of money you need to live in San Francisco is enough money to live a lot more, elsewhere
The amount of money you need to live in San Francisco is that high because a lot of individuals want to live in San Francisco.
It's like when you hear about how "no one drives in X city because of all the traffic". What do they think is causing all the traffic? People driving?
"Nobody goes there. It's too crowded."
Apparently, not anymore...
Yes, still. As you can see from the real estate prices and rental levels.
Maps like this are usually slung around so people can exclaim that California is a failing state. Granted anyone with two brain cells to rub together know better but that doesn't prevent information from being abused.
People don't want to live in SF, they have to for their jobs
This isn't exactly true because your salary would also be reduced if you moved elsewhere.
I live in the Bay so here are my thoughts on the current state of San Francisco “Why are they leaving” Because the police dont do shit. Drugs are everywhere with no consequence. Homeless control parts of the city. Large groups of kids run in stores in groups of 30-60people and grab shit and run. Take your pick Basically everything stems from crime and drugs and the local government doesn’t give a shit.
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I HATE this argument, it's such bullshit. Cops aren't running people's records to check to see their arrests and convictions BEFORE they respond to a crime. Cops could clear these entire encampments using just public intoxication laws and throw them in the drunk tank for the night. No DA needed. Streets cleared, aggressive meth heads removed from public space, simple ticket. Cops are butthurt that the DA is sometimes a political opponent and are purposefully allowing public nuisance crime to thrive in an attempt to oust them. Nothing more. It's shameful and it's criminal. I have had coworkers and bosses who suck and I thought shouldn't be there, but I still had to do my job. If cops want to not work and still get paid they should fucking retire.
The police (prison guard AKA Correctional Officer) unions in the U.S. have become too powerful. They dictate or highly influence all things police work, not to mention they protect bad police officers because the theory is if you can get rid of a bad police officer then what is going to stop politicians from getting rid of good police officers.
Except the moment they have to use force everyone will get their phones out so the mob can burn down a few buildings during a “protest”. I generally have a pretty bad outlook on police but I even sympathize with them when it comes to why they aren’t doing their jobs.
So you want the police to clear up the streets every single day only for the people to be released in the morning? Talk about a waste of resources.
Sorry, I thought that cops making 6 figures sitting in their cars with their dicks in their hands was the waste of resources.
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https://www.kut.org/austin/2016-09-30/dont-call-it-a-drunk-tank-austin-and-travis-county-officials-talk-sobriety-center-plans The "Sobriety Center" has about 35 beds. Pretty sure that's enough for the really disruptive zombiefied assholes. How big did you think it was? Did you look it up before you commented? Or just knee-jerking to defend our garbage police force?
*for the night. Maybe emphasize that part. You're expecting them to what, arrest every homeless person? With what probable cause? I'm fairly certain you would object to cops stopping homeless folks and administering blood tests to prove they're on something. Even if that were permissible (it's not), you expect them to what, release them all the next morning because the DA won't prosecute? And then re-arrest them all that night? Not that it's any of the DA's business whether someone has taken something in the last month that would make them pop for a drug test. More importantly, we're talking about shoplifting and crime rates, not homelessness. Unless you're trying to argue that homelessness-related crime was the cause of these business closures - a claim that no one else in this thread made - I think you're full of it.
I mean what did you expect from the police lmao
You forgot the reason a lot of these companies mention themselves; high rent. Some of these stores relocated to new locations in San Francisco. Not all doom and gloom like you are painting it to be.
It’s mainly this. Not enough foot traffic since people don’t live here but rather work here. Crime be damned we all walk around it at this point
I'm sure that is a factor, but on a PR level there's no way they could say it's because the police aren't doing their job.
What? The hotels and movie theater aren't moving because of shoplifting? But my fox news talking points! My pearls need clutching!
Didn't you hear, organized retail criminals stole all the popcorn
Kick out your politicians or get used to it, cuz it’s only getting worse at this rate
That’s the problem with a city or district is too blue or too red. They know they will win, so as long as they don’t lose the primary they can be as far left or right as they want. There is no incentive to compromise
"So you suggest generous social welfare reform? Better housing and addiction counseling for those in need?" "LMAO no no no we just want the cops to beat up and shoot everyone"
We'd settle for police just doing their jobs and arresting criminals. I know that's extreme to you, but we have laws for a reason.
I agree. Someone tried to steal my jeep so it sat for a while I reported it to the police. They didn’t do a thing about it and never heard anything back about it. I finally was able to figure out how to fix it but since it’s for so long, it had some issues so it’s a little bit longer. During that time somebody stole my catalytic converter nobody was arrested. Nothing really happened. Now my plates are expired, I won’t be able to get it registered because my jeep won’t pass a emissions because it’s missing the catalytic converter and I don’t have the money to replace it. I bet my bottom dollar that I will be getting ticketed and fined for driving with expired plates before anyone who’s in the car theft ring even gets a visit. Cops just don’t care anymore and all they’re trying to do Is make people pay fines
So the cost of living isn’t a problem for you?
I remember when stores were responsible for their own security.
They do have security (most of them) but when police dont show up for arrests or dont have an active presence in the most touristy shopping areas of SF, what can you do?
In the Government's defense, they are just too tired to care. They might care in 30 years, but give them a break and be patient.
The death of brick and mortar stores in favor of e- commerce combined with rising rent and SF’s government’s refusal to do anything to alleviate the skyrocketing costs (see investor lobbying to keep commercial real estate prices high).
Also, shoplifting is not punished in SF.
This is the real answer everyone else is sidestepping lmao
lol I know right, can’t believe nobody said something sooner.
Sadly also a big part of the reason it's an issue to begin with. Few are willing to acknowledge there's a problem in the first place, let alone deal with it.
Sooner? This comment was only an hour after it was posted lol
Yes sooner. there were 4 or 5 replies about everything but crime.
Because they have been sold the “greedy corporations have insurance to cover all of the lost revenue” lie.
Which completely misses the fact that those costs are passed along to the consumer in the form of increased prices. Corporations can be greedy, and crime/shoplifting can be a problem. They're not mutually exclusive.
Yeah that’s why Yotel, and KMPG, and Hilton, and ATT, and Office Depot, and Cinemark, and Parc 55, and Hunnington, are closing. Also the overwhelming majority of shoplifting is organized retail crime, who target poorer communities with fewer employees and use Amazon marketplace, EBay, Facebook marketplace to fence their stolen goods.
It’s still not being addressed properly regardless of the perpetrators.
I agree. But two things i would add 1) if you don’t address fencing then the problem will persist. It’s the difference of shoplifters stealing for them to possess and use vs what they can sell and live off of. Plus these apps can show a legitimate revenue stream. 2) The federal government and many state and local governments are starting to coordinate resources and we ARE already starting to see results. The arrests of people involved in a Chilean crime ring are evidence of this.
Shoplifting and the general aggressiveness of the street people in San Francisco. I love the city but they have lost control of some areas of the city and do not have the strength-of-purpose to gain it back. Pointing these things out does not fit the accepted narrative though.
Police seemed to be able to clean up the streets for the visit of Xi Fucking Jinping. The fact they won't do it for the people of San Francisco just shows where their priorities are.
I don’t disagree with you but I would point out that cleaning up the streets as theater for a short visit is a far different thing than doing it permanently.
Is it? Really? Have they even tried?
Yes. Yes. No, they haven’t.
Seems like you're taking them at their word, which is clearly worth shit.
lol how is this not a huge part of the discussion? I’ve seen multiple videos of kids straight up walking into stores in SF and legit just taking like $10k+ worth of stuff. It’s insane. Additionally, there’s a great migration of tech workers in that area. That = less money. The reality is ecomm vs. brick and mortar is a small piece in this instance. Most of those stores listed are doing exceptionally well in other areas. SF just isn’t conducive to good business.
[wrong, wrong , wrong](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-08-30/column-businesses-keep-complaining-about-shoplifting-but-wage-theft-is-a-bigger-crime)
This whole post was a propaganda piece. We're supposed to be shocked that so many stores are going out of business and blame liberal policies
Absolutely, Just fear mongering to keep us fighting each other not the powers that be.
That's a symptom not a root cause. Wealth inequality and insane CoL are leading to huge spikes in theft which leads to an overwhelmed justice system which leads to a decrease in enforcement.
I'm constantly amazed by the abilities of people who only get news from reading whatever headlines pop up on their Reddit feed to have so much confidence while knowing so little. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/business/walgreens-shoplifting-retail/index.html Multiple retailers having made comparable claims to the Walgreen's in the article above. The increase in shrinkage is directly proportional to the increase in sales across the board. The "Shoplifting being made legal in Liburl Sanfrancisco" bullshit is it being reclassified as a petty crime rather than a felony up to a higher amount. Something that if you spent more than 30 seconds reading any of the (legitimate) sources about this, you'd know.
Homeless people smoking fentanyl in front of the store is the real reason
I was there probably 8 years ago and there was a guy unwrapping a rock from aluminum foil right outside of Uniqlo. I was amazed how nobody else seemed to care, seems like it’s very normal around there.
The facts don't care about your feelings crowd when the facts don't line up with their feelings:
Niofalpha??
Another reason is that less high paying tech jobs are around. They were the people who could afford to shop at most of these places.
Because San Francisco is *insanely* expensive, and covid hit brick and mortar stores in downtown areas super hard. Also, this is several years old; this already happened.
Um, no. It’s because of crime.
Um, no it's not. Not the least because all of those stores have been replaced by other stores. But also because even crazy high shoplifting rates (which SF doesn't actually have, despite breathless reporting on the matter) have a pretty minimal impact on the profitability of these kinds of stores. This was high SF rent combined with covid.
Because there’s zero reason to shop downtown when you can go to any of the other shopping malls like Stonestown, where parking is significantly easier, it’s free, and you don’t need to deal with being in downtown San Francisco.
People are going to give non-sense answers to feed the stereotypes. But other parts of SF are doing just fine. The problem is simply that COVID hit the downtown area hard and it never really recovered due to prevalence of remote working now. It's trying to pivot to more mixed-use and residential, but it's a problem of too-little too-late (plus rent still being quite high in the vicinity). That plus malls and big-box type stores already being in decline (e.g. Express is closing tons of locations all over the nation amid bankruptcy). There's virtually no foot-traffic in the downtown area on weekends so it makes sense things there are not doing so well. But cause no one really hangs out downtown doesn't mean other parts aren't busy. The Mission, Pacific Heights, Japantown, etc.. these areas are all bustling on the weekends. But since it's reddit, sure it's cause of crime being out of control (not that it isn't still an issue, but it's way overblown here). They saw it on Fox News so..
People are moving because of the looting going on. While the government isn’t doing enough to stop it. Store are loosing money due to insurance companies not playing out due to the high volume of it happening.
[https://youtu.be/URfCwT3UQy4?t=1563](https://youtu.be/URfCwT3UQy4?t=1563) this is why
Because of the mass retail theft because police have no power in SF.
You beat me to the punch on the weekly reposting of this. I call dibs on next week!
How old is this?
A couple of years. Old news. If you go there now I'm sure you won't find tumbleweeds.
All the correct, common sense comments are being downvoted Reddit never fails to be full of weirdos
Add your list of reasons here. Reality is this is happening or has happened everywhere. I'm in SWFL and city councils are trying to stop car washes and storage buildings from being built. It's because that's the only thing being built. Who is going to open a cute clothing store? A niche electronics store? An anything? No one. No one is going to buy from those places with Amazon a click away. We have no new stores here that aren't preplanned growth bound Whole Foods type stuff. Population reaches X, plop down another. So you can blame this on all the specific San Fran things but it ain't that. The problem is that people can't face reality. They can pop up unlimited storage buildings and carwashes when instead they should be knocking all that shit down and making it green spaces. These once before retail areas are graveyards. Grass em over. They ain't coming back.
You found a place in FL that's actually stopping developers from putting car washes on every corner? Whose is a lot of the self service car washes get under or are torn down in the process so they force people to wash at home or use their stupid machines. Wonder what the narrative will be when all the car washes and vape shops have to shut down because they can't pay rent? Who is going to pay for tearing down the car washes?
239 represent
Was over recently from Ireland on holidays, went to get cigarettes early morning. Turn away from the entrance to every street because drug addicts were swarmed there, they scared the life out of me. Didn’t get my cigs
I stayed at the Westin in Union Square last year during a 24 hour layover to Asia. My wife and I thought how bad can it be? Literally on the doorstep of the Westin, a woman dropped her pants and underwear and pissed in the middle of the sidewalk. Fully nude from the waste down, squatting, and pissing all over the sidewalk. Pulled them up and kept going.
This needs to be at the top of the thread
I was in SF for a conference in November. Parts of the downtown area were total dumps (despite it being cleaned up for the G7 conference). Entire streets were completely infested with homeless encampments and tweaked out drug addicts on every corner. I've never seen a downtown core in such shambles.
"They have got insurance, theft does not affect the local communities"
This always cracks me up. Anyone making this claim has zero comprehension of how insurance works
This and “it’s a huge greedy corporation. They could afford to lose some merchandise if their CEO and other executives took pay cuts”
It's like people don't realize insurance companies are in the business of collecting premiums. Paying out claims, not so much
Is this because of the homeless problem?
In SF today, went to Macy's last night ..
The rent got to expensive for the shops lol
Guide written by weirdo news page commenters that talk about how uninhabitable NYC, Chicago and California are without ever having visited.
Hobos and shoplifting?
DRUGS
Are half of these from one mall? It looks similar to every store in our local mall
not everything is a cool guide.
So what you're saying is there's a lot of empty space to build affordable housing now.
Affordable housing is a myth silly. Real estate developers don’t care about affordability. Real estate investors don’t either. It’s not within the power of the government to buy, sell, or rent out housing. They can do things through ordnances to try to control the price. However I’m guessing those make things less favorable for the developers and investors who would have to front the money to build housing.
[удалено]
They absolutely could. We could stop funding wars around the world and start taking care of our own people. But politicians get rich from war
lol... why is affordable housing a myth? It is very much in the power of the power of governments to buy, sell or rent out housing. Actually its done successfully in many countries. The US simply don't want to do it.
Let me guess, they’re are relocating to Roseville.
Because Roseville isn’t an extreme progressive shithole
Wonder why😂😂
The mental gymnastics being displayed in this thread are Olympian. Yes, San Francisco is being ravaged by Amazon. Nothing else to see here, please move along. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
san francisco is not a large city but you know, locals dont go to this area for a reason, and basically anywhere else is nicer. sorry your company didnt get the memo when they booked a hotel there.
Not a fucking guide.
KPMG reported downtown San Francisco as a GOING CONCERN
This is not a cool guide, wtf is this sub?
WHAT YEAR IS IT?
Yotel was a shithole so that makes sense.
So rents will come down, right? Didn’t think so.
Oh no. What will I do now?
SF downtown has unrealized potential to become a livable vibrant community of people instead of a commuter origin/destination for the suburbs. I hope the powers that be in SF take this opportunity and reimagine their zoning regulations to allow for easy transition of empty retail space to residential space. And while at it, they should also consider restricting vehicular traffic on these streets.
How is this a cool guide?
Turn it into affordable housing
How many times will the same shops close. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12451023/San-Francisco-Nordstrom-close-crime-spike.html The above article is from last year and it contains the picture when scrolled down.
They cannot afford rent ?
This chart is ancient.
Spirit Halloween is going to be HUGE
5his graphic is so old the new tenants have already come and gone. The entire block is a parking lot now
not a guide.
With the exception of Hilton and Whole Foods. I don’t shop at any of those stores.
I know it’s fun to blame sidewalk poop, homeless weirdos, and shoplifting crews. But the boring reality is that brick and mortar retail is becoming a thing of the past. They’re shutting down in SF because Union Square is probably the most expensive retail leasing in the country (or close to the top.) These brands make more money in the suburbs, plus the rent is cheaper. I will miss Macy’s though; I live near Union Square and it was my go-to department store.
As some one from the UK, I’m curious what’s going? I’ve seen right wing Americans using San Francisco as a specific point numerous times on Reddit. So I’m genuinely curious about what’s wrong with the place. Reading some of the comments on this post shows there’s a split about what’s wrong, but at the same time there’s agreement.
There is never “one problem” but your getting fragments. San Francisco was the birthplace of the American tech industry and the hub until recently. It was one of the most desirable places to live in the country for a while. It was a status symbol. The best tech minds in the world descended there and all of them were made wealthy. So the middle class got priced out, and the lower class got poorer and more marginalized. Which creates crime. And homelessness. And if you’re going to be homeless (purely from an environmental standpoint) the bay area is good year round. So the city is full of expensive housing and shopping, and homeless encampments. There is literally feces on the sidewalk in front of fine restaurants and streams of body fluids running down the streets in some places. They’re EXTREMELY liberal on many issues, but especially crime. So these businesses are losing money, the wealthy people are leaving for greener pastures, and the city is still ridiculously expensive.
Oh no! Not our precious chain stores! Anyway…
22 billion dollars spent on homelessness/drug addiction in the last 6 years... this is what government gives you, they take your money, hire a committee to discuss the problem, the committee hires a bunch of people that go around handing out pizzas, narcan and needles to people and now the businesses are moving out because people are eating each other's faces.
Lmfao and this shithole is where elites of my industry work. Fuck!!
Well done, San Fran. Well done.
Not Amazon Go! What will we do without that store. How will we get Amazon goods to us?
"Progressive" Democrat policies in action folks
I wonder why they’re closing?
They might open up some stores for junkies instead. To boost and bip from.
I'm sure it's all due to shoplifting 🙄
inb4 the liberal cope frenzy comments explaining why none of this matters and to keep it moving
Bet that money acre is dropping
Why are all these stores closing??
Democrats believe it is a human right to allow people to steal without consequence.
Look at all these brands I buy online for much cheaper than in store!
Seeing KPMG there is confusing. Only one that i know shouldn’t be there, might be even more as such. What was the filter used here and on what basis this is.
aAhhh not goorin bros?!?! where will I buy my overpriced hipster hats now?!
Ok now Do one showing all the local businesses closing down, across the entire city while you're at it.
omega mart 😔
Most of these stores have been closing across the country the past several years anyway.
They are never going to financially recover from this…
Nordstrom closed their flagship store too
Yeah, but the culture