Just how gross was it at that San Francisco Whole Foods? Customers weigh in online with their experiences at the now-shuttered Whole Foods flagship store in that bum-infested city

Whole Foods on Monday shut down its ritzy new flagship store in San Francisco, after just a year in operation, citing crime and safety concerns.

I wrote about that astonishing event yesterday, brought on by the city's failure to enforce its own laws, noting that the company had a good customer base and had shelled out big to make the place attractive, but that was no match for the chaos the one-party government had allowed the area to fall into. Whole Foods may have had a punchbowl for themselves and its customers, but with the city's coddling of bums and criminals, someone dropped a deuce in it.

In this case, seems that was literally. The story seems to have set San Francisco's locals buzzing on the internet, with person after person giving his story about what he saw in that place as it happened.

I curated a few doozies describing how bad it was:

Whole Foods San Francisco at SOMA 4th St. This is what employees have to deal with daily in S.F. People high on drugs, in psychosis. Suspect ate lot of fruit in store, his basket was full of orange/banana/tangerine peels. Look at security, hiding behind that brave woman employee

pic.twitter.com/FU25XYhWcU — Old Fashioned SF (@powellmarket415) April 11, 2023

This picture appears to be from the Whole Foods nearest to the Whole Foods that was shuttered, slightly up the road at Powell and Market. The point is clear, though.

From local publication SFist:

The block of Market Street between Seventh and Eighth streets has been notably more chaotic since the pandemic, with a crowds typically congregating closer to the Seventh Street end, and plenty of open-air drug use and dealing going on.

And from the comments section at SFist, the actual experiences of the locals:

Had enough? Obviously, the bums were taking over, or, as another commentator noted, Whole Foods had become "a food bank for the druggies and homeless." Another said it was "never a good sign to see your grocery store filled with cops and security.

What surprised me is that Whole Foods would even think of opening a store in that area - which is a complete s*** h*** - psychotic, drug-addled homeless freely roam the streets, tossing needles all over and using the sidewalks as bathrooms.

And no one does a thing about it.

Entire area smells like urine - not kidding. I almost got knocked off my biked from the smell - it was horrendous. I told my SIL never to take us down that part of town again.

> The Whole Foods announced in November that it was instituting a rule for using its restrooms, which would require showing a receipt to a security guard to prove you had shopped there. <

So now all you gotta do is buy an apple or a piece of gum, and then it’s back to business as usual.
Great idea there Whole Foods, not. But I guess it kicks the can down the road for another month or two.

Oh, and heaven help those security guards. Because the bums without receipts will certainly not be very cooperative.

SF is a small area - the land is extremely valuable - developers thought they could gentrify the tenderloin and mission areas - without cleaning up the homeless population outside on the public sidewalks - this population is protected by the elected government of the city - they are free to shoplift whatever they want anywhere, anytime, shoot up and toss the needles anywhere, assault and even kill passersby - and use the public sidewalks as toilets.

And no one is stopping them.

I think this Whole Foods was a part of that gentrification effort - thinking they’d attract “quality” people to live in the area, as parts of it are being redeveloped with high-end condos and apartments.

Can’t imagine who’d want to live there...

No wonder that supermarket was mostly empty of customers and losing money.

If I walked into a supermarket and saw a filthy bum like the one pictured below in the produce department, handling the food with his disgusting hands, I too would walk out and never shop there again.

I actually feel bad for Whole Foods and the employees who suffered to work there. They tried to provide a nice store for the community but the city of San Francisco allowed homeless bums like this to camp in the streets outside and overrun the store like cockroaches.

I would suggest the trend here will be....month after...each grocery will determine they can’t profit, and shut down. At the same time, the city will likely provide bus service from ‘loot-centre’ to the nearest still-operating grocery. That operation will endear a year of bad profits, and close down. No matter what direction you go....the city will have to service the ‘loot-crowd’ and expand the shutdown rate.

Even if you have a neighborhood grocery that is 15 miles from the affected zone today....within 3 years, your area will be affected as the looters expand their control.

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