(TheLastPatriotNews.com) – Outdoor fitness retailer “Recreational Equipment, Inc.” (REI) has announced it will shut down its only remaining store in Portland, Oregon, in February 2024, because of spiking crime.
A corporate email to REI members revealed that the Portland store could no longer “guarantee the safety of employees and patrons,” reported KGW, a local NBC affiliate, as cited by The National Review.
“The safety of our employees, members and customers is always our number one priority. In recent years, Portland has been dealing with increased crime in our neighborhood and beyond,” REI stated in its email.
“Last year, REI Portland had its highest number of break-ins and thefts in two decades, despite actions to provide extra security,” the outdoor sports company added.
It made it clear it had outgrown the Portland Pearl District store, and Portland shoppers could meet their outdoor sporting needs by visiting its locations in Tualatin, Hillsboro, and Clackamas.
On last year’s Black Friday, the REI’s store in Portland saw a massive theft after a robber used a car to break its doors.
According to the KGW report, the perpetrator took clothing before escaping the crime scene.
Police data shows in the first ten months of 2022, Portland’s Pearl District saw 933 cases of theft, an increase compared with 791 cases in the first months of 2019.
In the same period of 2022, the district’s number of car thefts spiked to 119, up from 35 in January-October 2019, while assaults increased from 126 to 197, respectively.
In its email, REI said it would consider options for opening new stores, but it made it clear a new location in downtown Portland was hardly likely in the future.
Portland and other Democrat-run cities throughout the US, which have embraced “justice reform,” “soft-on-crime,” and “defund the police” policies, have seen major store chains leave over security issues, the report points out.
Thus, last year, Starbucks closed multiple locations, including two in Portland, for safety reasons, and Whole Foods shut down a store in downtown San Francisco last week.
Retail giant Walmart also left Portland’s downtown last month. However, it did not mention crime and security issues as the reason for the move.
Instead, Walmart said its two locations in the leftist city were not achieving the needed financial results.
A week ago, Walmart also shut down four Chicago stores but again attributed that to financial issues.
The company emailed REI members to explain that the location could no longer guarantee the safety of employees and patrons. | @JeffZymeri https://t.co/TFbEIACbbg
— National Review (@NRO) April 18, 2023
