Thought provoking & depressing. I am lucky to live in a small town with a square & wonderful independently owned shops and restaurants. Safe and great shopping. We live about an hour away from Memphis & the crime, over the holidays especially, was absolutely brazen & shocking. A single friend of mine lives right outside Memphis & told me she was going later in the evening to do some shopping at Target. I yelled & said don’t! She finally relented.
I do not see crime decreasing. I can’t blame people shopping online. I do it to. If you don’t feel safe going to a brick & mortar store what other option is there? I am so angry at what criminals have done to this country & their ages go down now to even pre teen. Something’s got to give.
Too
Not far from me a formerly prosperous retail corner (bakery, pharmacy) near some medical centers has taken a drop off the cliff. The pharmacy closed in early December and the bakery a few days later. A local business owner said the pharmacy was covered in gang graffiti and spray paint art just days after it closed its doors for good.
The same business owner complained about the pharmacy never having anything available on the shelf, "everything is locked up." I mentioned a couple of other pharmacies a mile or so away, one of them part of the same chain, the other a smaller boutique pharmacy.
"That one! There's nothing on the shelves!"
"Well," I said, "you're right, I went in there to buy a bandage and the shelves were picked clean. They don't seem to have things. I thought they were having inventory problems."
"No, it's the shoplifters."