by Lillian Tweten
Starbucks plans to close seven stores located in downtown San Francisco in October, a spokesperson for the company confirmed.
The corporation looked into “several factors” when it decided to close the seven locations, and added that it would continue to invest in San Francisco through its 40 other company-owned locations in the city, a Starbucks spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Although the company declined to comment on whether crime was a factor that led to its decision, all seven of the closing locations — Mission & Main, Geary & Taylor, 425 Battery, 398 Market St, 4th & Market, 555 California and Bush & Van Ness — are situated in or near the city’s troubledTenderloin district, a Starbucks store map showed.
“Each year as a standard course of business, we evaluate the store portfolio to determine where we can best meet our community and customers’ needs,” the Starbucks spokesperson told the DCNF. “This includes opening new locations, identifying stores in need of investment or renovation, exploring locations where an alternative format is needed and, in some instances, re-evaluating our footprint.”
Over 39 stores have closed in downtown San Francisco since 2020, including at least 23 locations connected to major retailers. Stores that remained in the area have reported major crime and theft, including a Walgreens that resorted to locking up its frozen pizzas after being robbed up to 20 times a day.
There have been 2,092 robberies and 24,455 incidents of larceny theft reported in San Francisco since the start of the year, according to police data.
“We remain committed to continuing to dialogue with and support our partners in ways that work best for them as individuals throughout this transition,” Jessica Borton, the Starbucks vice president for the region, wrote in a letter provided to the DCNF. “We remain dedicated to investing in the City in meaningful and important ways that meet our partners and customers where they are – in the best way we know how.”
Employees at the closing locations will have the opportunity to transfer to another Starbucks to work, the spokesperson told the DCNF. The stores will officially close on Oct. 22.
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Lillian Tweten is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
