A popular outdoor clothing and equipment brand is temporarily shutting down its store in San Francisco.
Davis Smith, founder and CEO of Cotopaxi, told NBC Bay Area Wednesday that he had high hopes for the store on Hayes Street in San Francisco when it opened.
“In the first few days that we opened, someone smashed in our front window and stole a huge amount of product. It was discouraging. But we replaced the window and it got busted again,” he said.
Smith said they boarded up, then worked on getting a security gate, but there was a wait and the windows or doors were smashed four different times. So, they started locking the door during the day and opening it only for customers.
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“Two days ago, our team opened the door for a customer and then off, from the side of the door, they all rushed in pushed our employees aside and grabbed thousands of dollars’ worth of product. And so, it was kind of the last straw,” Smith said.
Smith posted about the experience in the city on LinkedIn. adding San Francisco appears “to have descended into a city of chaos.”
Now, there is a sign that the Hayes Valley store that said that "out of concern for the team’s safety, is temporarily closed due to increased crime."
San Francisco resident Miguel Gayton read it as he came to shop Wednesday.
“It’s sad because it’s embarrassing. It’s terrible. The state of our city, we have people visiting and they just have a negative outlook,” he said.
On Wednesday, people were out walking and shopping.
Lloyd Silverstein, president of the Hayes Valley Merchants Association sees it this way.
“This neighborhood has really suffered over the last couple of years with the pandemic. We come back strong with a lot of new merchants here, but we’re a target now. And the problem is we’re not getting the help we need,” he said.
There are discussions about adding private security or cameras. San Francisco Mayor London Breed's Office said Breed understands people are fed up and shares their frustration.
The city’s new budget increased public safety investments to fill 200 vacant police officer positions and implemented laws to address unpermitted street vending to break up the market for stolen goods.
“We want to rally together with our neighboring businesses, with the community, with the city and see if there is a way we can resolve this,” Smith said.
