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Old Navy set to close up downtown San Francisco location as major retailers flee

May 27, 2023 | | Print Article

Yet another retailer is closing up shop in San Francisco amid an ongoing exodus that’s been exacerbated by rampant, nonstop crime and liberal, bleeding-hearting policies.

In a statement issued on Friday, Gap, the parent company of Old Navy, said it’ll be closing its Market Street Old Navy store on July 1st after nearly 30 years in operation.

“Since our Market Street store opened in the 1990s, the way we leverage flagship locations has changed. As a result, we have taken the difficult decision to close our Market Street store when the lease expires,” the company said, as reported by Bay Area station KTVU.

“And we are already working to identify new locations in downtown San Francisco that will better serve the needs of the business and our customers,” the company added.

And so from the sounds of it, Gap intends to keep Old Navy in San  Francisco — but in another part of town, perhaps one with less crime?

Gap is one of a number of companies that have closed stores in the area in recent months.

Around the start of the month, Nordstrom announced that it’d be closing both of its downtown San Francisco stores because of changing “dynamics.”

“Decisions like this are never easy, and this one has been especially difficult. But as many of you know, the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past several years, impacting customer foot traffic to our stores and our ability to operate successfully,” Jamie Nordstrom, Nordstrom’s chief stores officer, wrote in a memo obtained by CNN.

By “dynamics,” Nordstrom likely meant crime.

Indeed, a spokesperson for the mall where both stores were located told CNN that the stores’ closure “underscores the deteriorating situation in downtown San Francisco.”

“A growing number of retailers and businesses are leaving the area due to the unsafe conditions for customers, retailers, and employees, coupled with the fact that these significant issues are preventing an economic recovery of the area,” the spokesperson said.

Even CNN, which tried to downplay the crime in the Bay Area, had to admit that it’s bad in San Francisco.

“Property crimes in San Francisco have garnered national attention because of several attention-grabbing videos of thieves in action. Though still well below 2017 levels, the city saw a 23% increase in property crimes between 2020 and 2022, with spikes in burglary and theft headlining the surge, according to San Francisco Police Department data,” the site reported.

“Meanwhile, violent crime statistics in San Francisco have remained relatively steady in recent years. Preliminary police data reports 12 homicides in San Francisco this year, an uptick of 20% compared to the same period in the previous year. In total, there were 56 homicides in San Francisco in 2022, which is the same number of homicides the city saw in 2021,” it added.

All this comes about a month after Whole Foods shuttered its San Francisco flagship store after only one year because of worker safety concerns. A city official told The San Francisco Standard at the time that the company had cited drug use and crime near the store as a reason for its closure.

“The beleaguered grocery store on Market Street slashed its operating hours due to “high theft” and hostile visitors in October of last year, according to one of the store’s managers. And in November, the store enforced new bathroom rules after syringes and pipes were found in the restroom,” the Standard reported at the time.

As noted earlier, liberal, bleeding-hearting policies are also to blame. Earlier this very month, San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Dean E. Preston proposed new legislation “to limit the use of guns by security guards.”

“As the pressure continues to mount for the district attorney to release the video tape of a Walgreens security guard shooting and killing Banko Brown, we also need to take some action to make sure this never happens again,” he said in a video message posted to Twitter.

“That’s why today, at the board of supervisors, I will be calling for legislation to specifically prohibit security guards from drawing their weapons to protect property. Human life is more important than property. We need to change our local law so that security guards cannot unholster their weapons just to protect property,” he added.

Banko Brown was a black transgender thief who was fatally killed by a Walgreens security guard during a shoplifting incident that occurred on April 27th.

Following Brown’s death, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, a black woman, declined to press charges, arguing in a statement that the Walgreens security guard had acted in self-defense when he’d opened fire on Brown.

Not surprisingly, given the location (California), her decision prompted massive outrage from left-wing activists who argue that Brown was “murdered” and that the security guard should have just let him steal whatever he wanted.

As of late May, the protests were ongoing:

Welcome to San Francisco …

Vivek Saxena
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