Moving

San Francisco sees T-Cell exit as metropolis faces enterprise exodus

By Miles Dilworth, Senior Reporter for Dailymail.Com

15:30 08 May 2023, updated 15:45 08 May 2023

  • Telecom giant becomes the latest victim in a corporate bloodbath in a California city
  • Comes after the retail hub blamed “rampant criminal activity” for the exodus last week
  • Businesses have closed stores over employee safety concerns, while crime rises

T-Mobile is the latest major retailer to close a flagship store in San Francisco as the city faces a business exodus due to “rampant criminal activity.”

The telecom giant’s decision to close its Union Square premises follows similar announcements by Saks Off 5th and Nordstrom last week.

T-Mobile said the closure of its two-story, 17,000-square-foot building in the heart of San Francisco is part of its “nationwide retail strategy to better serve customers.”

It’s the latest in a string of closures damaging the tech haven, which has been hit by rising crime and an epidemic of homelessness.

Billionaire Elon Musk last week called downtown San Francisco “post-apocalyptic.”

T-Mobile is the latest major retailer to close a flagship store in San Francisco as the city faces a business exodus due to “rampant criminal activity.”

The T-Mobile building previously housed Apple’s flagship store before the tech giant moved to its current Post Street location.

The Union Square store was sold to Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation for $50 million in 2013, records show.

It comes after luxury department store Nordstrom announced it will close both units in downtown San Francisco in the coming months after serving the area for 35 years.

Its 40,000-square-foot Nordstrom Rack store on Market Street will close on July 1, while one of its flagship stores — the 312,000-square-foot Nordstrom at Westfield San Francisco Center — will close by the end of August.

Jamie Nordstrom, Chief Stores Officer, explained the decision: “The dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past few years, impacting the footfall in our stores and our ability to operate successfully.”

A Westfield spokesman said the move underscores “the deteriorating situation” in the district.

“A growing number of retailers and businesses are fleeing the area due to the unsafe conditions for customers, retailers and employees, and the fact that these significant issues are preventing the area from recovering economically,” read the statement from Westfield and its owner, Unibail- Rodamco-Westfield [URW]called.

“URW has been actively working with city leaders for many years to express our serious concerns, which are shared by our customers and retailers.

“We have called on the city to find solutions to key issues and a lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity.

“The current environment is unsustainable for either the community or business, and we hope the city will implement the changes that are so desperately needed.”

The Nordstrom Rack in downtown San Francisco, which will close on July 1, Nordstrom Chief Stores Officer Jamie Nordstrom said, “The dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically in recent years, which is impacting traffic to our stores and our ability to operate successfully’ Whole Foods previously closed a flagship store in downtown San Francisco A Whole Foods spokesperson said the store was closed due to safety concerns for its employees, as area rampant drug use, theft and aggressive behavior occurs (homeless people use drugs in downtown SF street camps) “zombie-like” drug addicts are pictured with drug use and intoxication in downtown San Francisco last month

It came just a day after Saks Off 5th announced it would close its downtown store in the fall after eight years in the city.

Whole Foods temporarily closed a flagship location in the city last month, citing safety concerns for staff — just a year after the unit opened.

The organic food giant opened a new “flagship” location on Trinity Place in the city’s Tenderloin area in March 2022, hoping to revive visitor numbers after two years of draconian COVID restrictions severely impacted businesses in the area.

However, a Whole Foods spokesperson said the store would close “for now” and only reopen “when we feel we can keep our team members safe.”

A City Hall source said the business cited deteriorating street conditions related to drug use and crime near the store as driving factors for the closure, The San Francisco Standard reported.

The Trinity Place Whole Foods store has struggled since it opened in March 2022, as managers cut operating hours in October due to “grand theft” and hostile visitors.

Billionaire Elon Musk has branded downtown San Francisco “post-apocalyptic” as retailers continue to flee the city over security concerns

A month later, the store announced customers could only enter the toilets with a valid QR code after syringes and tubes were found strewn on the bathroom floor.

Meanwhile, San Francisco supervisor Matt Dorsey claimed a Whole Foods employee told him there were no more baskets available for shoppers because all 250 had been stolen.

Last month, it emerged that a Target store in San Francisco had locked down its entire line of products, citing concerns about “organized retail crime.”

A video posted to TikTok on April 20 shows all of the items secured behind glass.

According to geotagged images, some products at the Folsom Street store had been locked and keyed since at least October last year, WNCT reported.

California’s Proposition 47, which downgraded crimes like drug possession and theft of goods under $950 from felonies to misdemeanors, was previously blamed for a breakdown in law and order in cities across the state and forcing businesses out.

Figures show the number of homeless people in San Francisco reached 8,000 last year, the second-highest since 2005 and only topped in 2019, when the pandemic was peaking.|

A Target San Francisco location was forced to put its inventory behind glass to combat shoplifting A former prosecutor suggested that San Francisco’s crime statistics are even worse than the numbers suggest San Francisco is experiencing a staggering rise in the number of Number of drug-related deaths recorded by 41 percent in the first quarter of 2023

Devastating images captured last summer showed rows of tents lined up outside shops and homeless people sitting on people’s doorsteps, openly smoking illicit drugs and passing out on the tarmac in the middle of the day.

Small businesses trying to recover from the pandemic have reached out to city officials for failing to address the issue, which they say is hurting revenue.

The Castro Merchants Association said some of the homeless people on the streets outside their stores were harassing customers and needing help.

About 50 percent of small businesses in San Francisco remained closed last year, according to Forbes.

Meanwhile, San Francisco had the highest overall crime rate of the 20 largest cities in the United States, recording 6,917 crimes per 100,000 people in 2019, according to the latest available FBI Unified Crime Report.

That was more than double the crime rate in New York and Los Angeles, and well above the rate in the next largest US cities: Chicago, Houston and Phoenix.

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