A popular outdoor clothing and equipment brand is temporarily shutting down its store in San Francisco.
Davis Smith, founder and CEO of Cotopaxi posted that San Francisco appears “to have descended into a city of chaos.”
“I love the city. It was like a highlight for me of all the stores,” he said.
Smith told NBC Bay Area Wednesday that he had high hopes for the store on Hayes Street in San Francisco.
“The first few days that we opened, someone smashed in our front window and stole a huge amount of product. It was discouraging and we replaced the window and it got busted again,” he said.
Smith said they boarded up, then worked on getting a security gate, but there was a wait and the windows or doors were smashed four different times. So, they started locking the door during the day and opening it only for customers.
“Two days ago, our team opened the door for a customer and then off, from the side of the door they all rushed in pushed our employees aside and grabbed thousands of dollars’ worth of product and it was kind of the last straw,” Smith said.
Smith posted about the experience in the city on LinkedIn. adding San Francisco appears “to have descended into a city of chaos.” Now, there is a sign that the Hayes Valley store that said that “out of concern for the team’s safety, is temporarily closed due to increased crime.”
Miguel Gayton read it as he came to shop Wednesday.
“It’s sad because it’s embarrassing. It’s terrible the state of our city we have people visiting and they just have a negative outlook,” he said.
On Wednesday, people were out walking and shopping. Lloyd Silverstein, President of the Hayes Valley Merchants Association sees it this way.
“Neighborhood has suffered over the past few years with pandemic come back strong with new merchants but we’re a target now and we’re not getting the help we need,” he said.
There are discussions about adding private security or cameras. The mayor’s office says she understands people are fed up and shares their frustration.
The city’s new budget increased public safety investments to fill 200 vacant police officer positions and implemented laws to address unpermitted street vending to break up the market for stolen goods.
“We want to rally together with our neighboring businesses with the community, the city and see if there is a way, we can resolve this,” Smith said.
Source: NBC Bay Area
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