Whole Foods shuts flagship San Francisco store amid fears for staff safety after Cash App founder stabbing

Whole Foods is temporarily closing its flagship store in downtown San Francisco just one year after it opened due to concerns for staff safety.

The 65,000-square-foot store at Trinity Place in the Mid-Market neighbourhood shut its doors on Monday to “ensure the safety” of its employees, a Whole Foods spokesperson told The Independent. 

The grocery store last year reduced its opening hours due to rampant theft and changed bathroom rules after staff found syringes and pipes in restrooms, The San Francisco Standard reported.

The city had been on edge after a series of violent incidents including the murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee on 4 April.

The Whole Foods spokesperson added the closure was a “difficult decision”, and all staff would be transferred to nearby stores.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Matt Dorsey said he was “incredibly disappointed but sadly unsurprised” by the temporary closure in a Twitter post.

“Our neighbourhood 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,” Mr Dorsey wrote.

He called for a charter amendment to fully staff the city’s police force, which is 500 officers short, within five years.

“Whole Foods’ closure — together with many other safety-related challenges we’ve seen recently — is Exhibit A as to why San Francisco can no longer afford not to solve our police understaffing crisis,” he wrote on Twitter.

Mayor London Breed said in a statement that police and city leaders had been working with Whole Foods to address its safety concerns.

“The Police will continue aggressively enforcing against open-air drug dealing, maximising police response to urgent calls for assistance, partnering with retailers to address theft in their stores, and enforcing new street vending regulations to disrupt the sale of stolen goods,” she said.

The city was committed to spending an additional $25m to pay police officers overtime and on recruitment and retention efforts, she added.

Last week’s stabbing of Lee in the Rincon Hill neighbourhood and a brutal assault on a former city fire commissioner Don Carmignani the next day had led to claims that violent crime San Francisco was out of control.

Homicide and violent crime rates in the city have remained steady over the past three years, police came data shows.

But many city residents say the city has failed to deal with rampant homelessness and drug use. The city saw a 23 per cent increase in property crime, mostly due to a spike in burglary and robbery, between 2020 and 2022, according to the San Francisco Police Crime Dashboard.

The opening of one of the largest supermarkets in San Francisco in March last year was heralded as a “flagship” Whole Foods store with “design nods to classic San Francisco”, such as the industrial feel of the Tenderloin area and colours of the Golden Gate Bridge.