Starbucks has announced that it will be permanently shutting down 16 locations in Major U.S. cities because of ‘increasing threats’ including incidents related to drug use and ‘other disruptions.’
The announcement came after managers and staff reported a surge in crime and drug use in its cafes. Employees complained to company executives saying that they no longer felt safe as thefts, assaults, and drug use have all spiked in the areas of each location.
U.S. operations leads Debbie Stroud and Denise Nelson wrote a message to employees saying,
“We read every incident report you file—it’s a lot. We cannot serve as partners if we don’t first feel safe at work.”
The company will be shutting down six stores in its hometown of Seattle, another six in Los Angeles, two in Portland, Oregon and one location each in Philadelphia and Washington D.C. by the end of the month.
Four weeks ago, Starbucks CEO Howard Schutz told the New York Times that they were rethinking it’s ‘all inclusive’ bathroom policy that has most likely led to the increased drug use and crime,
“There is an issue of…safety in our stores, in terms of people coming in who use our stores as a public bathroom,” Schultz said.
The cities that are experiencing closures have all embraced liberal policies and are run by Democrat leaders.
According to preliminary reports posted at the city’s open records portal, aggravated assaults in Seattle – which spiked by 24% last year – are up another 33% in the first quarter of 2022.
Robberies are up 30% in 2022 and violent crime is up 32%. In the first three months of 2021 there were 1,051 incidents of violent crime, that number up to 1,387 this year.
Experts believe that the city is on track to reach a violent crime rate of 900 per 100,000 people which is a level of violence that hasn’t bee seen since 1995.
Los Angeles has seen a 69% increase in shootings since 2020. Violent crime is up by 7.2% robberies have spiked by 18.5% and car thefts are up by 40%. In addition, a petition has been started to recall Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón because of his ‘soft on crime’ approach that many say has led to the surge in crime. According to L.A. County elections officials, there are more than 715,000 signatures on the petition.
Same story in Portland as 2021 was a record year for homicides. The city of Philadelphia had a record 559 murders last year and in Washington D.C. the city was witness to 226 homicides in 2021- the most in 18 years.
