The Founder and CEO of Cotopaxi, one of San Francisco’s attractive clothing and gear outfitter stores, announced that his company is packing up and moving out of town.
CEO Davis Smith and his store have had to face reality as San Francisco has “descended into a city of chaos.”
Smith and other store owners have had to deal with constant and consistent crime within the neighborhood of local city businesses. The city has refused to clean up vandalism and contain robberies.
Smith sarcastically mentioned that his store had no choice but to board the store up “in a charming shopping district.”
“Our team is terrified,” Smith acknowledged in a post on LinkedIn. “They feel unsafe. Security guards don’t help because these theft rings know that security guards won’t/can’t stop them. It’s impossible or a retail store to operate in these circumstances, especially when cities refuse to take any action (despite us paying taxes well above any other state we operate in).”
“As of today, we are closing the store due to rampant organized theft and lack of safety for out team,” Smith said. “Our store is hit by organized theft rings several times per week. They brazenly enter the store and grab thousands of dollars of product and walk out.”
Businesses are fleeing San Francisco since the city passed a law reducing the shoplifting penalty to under $950 worth of goods can only be prosecuted if caught in the process.
Social media has been the only voice for these stores as the city has put them nearly on life support due to the unprecedented situation San Francisco has created abandoning their taxpayers.
Smith said he called the police once because his rental car was broken into, and when the city police arrived, they blamed him for parking on the street.
Smith also mentioned a personal experience with a criminal near his store saying, “a drugged-up person ran up to his wife’s face and started screaming some of the most obscene things I’ve ever heard. She was terrified.”
“It’s sad, but San Francisco appears to have descended into a city of chaos,” Smith concluded. “Many streets and parks are overrun with drugs, criminals, and homelessness, and local leadership and law enforcement enable it through inaction.”
Where the radical left takes control chaos erupts! This is happening in streets of San Francisco!
So sad to see this in our great country!
This is your home city, Speaker Nancy Pelosi! Fix it! pic.twitter.com/1BBJNq75L6
— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) March 20, 2020