A San Francisco Whole Foods Market has been shut down due to the city’s rising crime rate. The popular grocery store chain, which began operation just over a year ago, said it closed due to worker safety concerns. 

“We are closing our Trinity location only for the time being,” a Whole Foods spokesperson said in a statement.

According to reports in The San Francisco Standard, the company claimed crime incidents and drug use near the store forced the closure. 

However, the Spokesperson added that the company would consider reopening the store if the management feels it can ensure the safety of their staff at the Trinity location.

San Francisco’s District 6 supervisor, Matt Dorsey, said he was not surprised by news of the closure.

“Our neighborhood waited a long time for this supermarket, but we’re also well aware of problems they’ve experienced with drug-related retail theft, adjacent drug markets, and the many safety issues related to them,” Dorsey said in a statement.

Dorsey added that the store’s closure clearly indicates that the city must solve its police understaffing crisis.

According to The San Francisco Standard, high theft at the store and hostile customers had already forced the Trinity location to reduce its hours in October 2022. 

“It’s to better serve our customers, and it’s more or less because of the area and security issues,” a store manager at the location told The San Francisco Standard. “There’s just high theft and people being hostile.”

The store manager added that the Trinity location spends more on security than any other store. The heavy security presence has done little to slow the rising petty crimes and shoplifting at the store.

The store was also forced to restrict its bathroom use to customers only after staff found syringes and pipes in the restrooms. According to the New York Post, the store — located across the street from a city-supervised drug consumption site, became a spot for petty crime and drug use. 

The drug site drew people with an addiction who used the store’s bathrooms as their shooting den. Some of the addicts engage in shoplifting acts at the store, stealing goods in clear view of staff and police officers on duty.