Crime Wave: Starbucks Closing 16 Locations In Cities Around The Nation Over 'Safety Concerns'

Red State ^ | 07/12/2022 | Bob Hoge

[SeekAndFind]

Starbucks is closing 16 locations in cities around the nation after the coffee giant’s employees reported a string of “personal safety” incidents, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Translation: Crime is skyrocketing and our workers are too terrified to even show up at these locations.

The company will shutter six stores in both Seattle and Los Angeles, two in Portland, and one each in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. by the end of July. What do all those locations have in common? They’re in deep-blue areas with soft-on-crime district attorneys and past support of the “defund the police” movement. How’d that work out for you?

Workers described the problems to the company in outreach sessions. In a Monday letter to employees, Senior Vice Presidents Debbie Stroud and Denise Nelson detailed what they learned:

You’re also seeing firsthand the challenges facing our communities – personal safety, racism, lack of access to healthcare, a growing mental health crisis, rising drug use, and more. With stores in thousands of communities across the country, we know these challenges can, at times, play out within our stores too. We read every incident report you file – it’s a lot.

It certainly is “a lot.” The company is also reversing course on its bathroom rules which, in a 2018 woke paroxysm, they decided to let anyone use, regardless of whether the person was a customer or not. The decision came with obvious safety concerns, and as it turns out, it led to problems. Now, store managers are again allowed to lock bathroom doors and restrict customers should they detect an unsafe situation.

Workers will also now be able to limit seating or cut back on operations, change store layouts, and other moves that they feel will make the space safer. Starbucks, in addition, said it would also offer active-shooter guidance and conflict de-escalation strategies.

Portland's streets are so unsafe that businesses can't even stay open.

Kate Brown, Tina Kotek, and Betsy Johnson have failed to keep families safe from crime.

Our streets are a mess, let's clean them up. #orpol https://t.co/wA2AS0iO1L

— Christine Drazan (@ChristineDrazan) July 12, 2022

Starbucks isn’t the only company facing safety and violence issues. In a horrible story out of Southern California Monday, a string of pre-dawn robbery-shootings at six 7-11 stores left two dead and three wounded. It’s not clear if all the crimes are connected, but police are seeking the same lone gunman in at least three instances. The spree occurred on July 11, or 7/11, the day the chain celebrates its anniversary. “There’s no way it can be a coincidence of it being 7-Eleven, July 11,” said Officer Ryan Railsback, a spokesperson for the Riverside Police Department.

Call me crazy, but I’m guessing when the perp is finally arrested, he will be a violent felon on parole with a lengthy rap sheet.

In the past few days, we have seen multiple shootings, assaults & murders in LA. Angelenos should never be afraid to buy groceries, wear a watch, go to lunch w/friends, leave their homes, go to 7-11, or just take a walk. George-reforms don’t mean less freedom & safety for us all.

— jonathanhatami (@jonathanhatami) July 12, 2022

Walgreen’s, meanwhile, has also been the victim of increased crime and has shuttered dozens of stores in the San Francisco area over the last two years. Organized retail theft, where gangs of criminals enter the store at once and grab whatever they want, plagued inner-city locations where police were seemingly unable or unwilling to crack down on the practice and where local politicians and a progressive district attorney were uninterested in the problem. (S.F. DA Chesa Boudin was recently recalled. We’ll see how his replacement works out.)

Walgreens, 1333 Castro Street, San Francisco, Caledonia, 94114. pic.twitter.com/BAwqjPk5Mz

— UK RESISTANCE 🗣️ GETTR: KIM_007 (@007agentkim) August 25, 2020

It’s sad to see these businesses under such an onslaught, and it’s a troubling sign of where our country is headed. From the WSJ:

Nicky DeClerico, a 65-year-old Philadelphia resident, said he curtailed his trips to Starbucks when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Now, he said, crime downtown has made him reluctant to return to the cafes.

Mr. DeClerico said he didn’t blame Starbucks employees for not wanting to work in urban stores, where he said thinly staffed locations could feel scary for workers. “If you have crime, nothing can survive,” he said.

The Defund the Police movement, “progressive” district attorneys, and feckless politicians have led to the massive rise in crime in the last two years. It’s time we get back to reality and deal with crime with actual penalties, not slaps on the wrist.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Pizza delivery in rough neighborhoods don’t go well either.

[dsrtsage]

Women and minorities will be hardest hit living in deserts where they have no access to severely overpriced krap coffee

[max americana]

The three S bucks locations that they are closing in L.A , I know very well. The one on Hollywood / Vine is at an intersection that has been “violated” by riots and burglaries.

The only Starbucks location that I know are “safe” are the ones INSIDE grocery chains like Vons or Target.

[blueunicorn6]

Cowards!

Stay there and hand out hundred dollar bills.

[upchuck]

Also see https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4077911/posts and https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4077846/posts

[RomanSoldier19]

[bray]

Black Lives Matter More

[TigerClaws]

Food deserts.

So after people who didn’t pay money as customers demanded use of the bathroom or they’d take to social media screaming ‘racism!’ Starbucks now is closing all these business locations - putting people out of work and costing them millions.

Rather than enforce a reasonable policy - bathrooms are for customers - they now have to lose jobs and tax dollars for this area.

Reminds me of a couple years ago there was a gas station that was getting ‘mob shoplifted’ when thuglets were let out of a nearby high school.

So, reasonable solution, though the owners: let’s close the inside of the store for an hour as school lets out and not lose thousands of dollars to shoplifters.

“Community organizers” said this was racist and organized protests.

Owners wound up, you guessed it, closing the business.

Food desert!

[allendale]

Starbucks and Planned Parenthood will soon announce that the locations will be turned into abortion clinics. Coffee will be served.

[Betty Jane]

Didn’t Starbucks support BLM? If so, they got what they paid for.

[aquila48]

[lefty-lie-spy]

These people are so stupid. They never examine close enough to see that they caused these problems with liberal policies. They will always do the same thing over and over and think they somehow didn’t do enough of something to prevent or cause something, and never realize they are the cause. These people know nothing about analysis and cause and effect, or choose to ignore it, or simply don’t care and are always lying and playing ignorant on purpose to further their bigger and loftier commie inspired agendas. It goes so deep that even these pawns in the commie agenda don’t even know they are pawns.

[pepsi_junkie]

These people are so stupid. They never examine close enough to see that they caused these problems with liberal policies.

This is the reason that "lesser of two evils" candidates like Arnold Schwarzenegger are ultimately extremely harmful. Because people assume they are conservative because they have an (R) next to their name and when they govern as lefties and nothing gets better people assume that "conservatism" doesn't work and even is harmful. As long as the GOP is not a true alternative to the leftist Democrats they cannot make a case for anything but more leftism.

[MinorityRepublican]

It’s California. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the only Republican who could get elected.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

The coffee was too dark.

[SaveFerris]

No kidding.

Who buys their overpriced coffee ☕ anyways?

Last time I was in a Starbucks was 2013 for an informal meeting with a guy from church in Texas. I requested that we go elsewhere and we did. Immediately.

[pepsi_junkie]

I remember sitting in a bar in San Diego at the end of Arnold's tenure and a couple of locals were talking about how badly the "conservative" policies of Schwarzenegger "really f----d up this state" and laughing about how a republican won't be able get elected again for a century.

I don't care about notching victories if it's just numbers on a score card. If it doesn't help advance conservative policies than it's harmful. Schwarzenegger wasn't appreciably different than Jerry Brown. So what was the point in "winning" with him, especially since his lefty policies ended up ruining the brand of conservatism for a generation?

[MinorityRepublican]

I don't think anyone is fooled by Arnold's political party. He is similar to Larry Hogan's brand in Maryland. He's a Republican. But not really. Then again it's Maryland. But every once a while Hogan is good one certain policies and he has a little common sense. So he's much better than a Democrat. And Hogan is the nest you can get from Maryland at this point in time.

I haven't read enough about Arnold's performance in California but I assume he is a little bit better than Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom.

[BitWielder1]

When the mobs steal from local stores, they are stealing from their own communities and ultimately from themselves.
Why don't they see that?