Good for him, standing up for his employees who clearly must be very alarmed.<p><i>B8ta has stores around the globe, and Norby told SFGATE last month that the crime in San Francisco is unlike anything the company experiences elsewhere. “This actually doesn’t happen anywhere else in the country,” he said. “We have 17 other stores, including three internationally. This just doesn’t happen anywhere else. It’s only here.”</i><p>Why do the stores in SF attract violent crime compared to, say, a store in another West Coast city? Is there a gang that specializes in this sort of crime in the Bay Area, or is the level of all kinds of violent street crime off the charts? Or something else?
For context a realtor friend I know lived right in that area. It’s overrun with homeless and drug dealers.<p>Hayes Valley used to be the place people wanted to move to because it had good food and local merchants. This was ten years ago. Now it’s just as bad as the b8ta owner makes it out to be.<p>City politics is to blame for this because they spin up programs to help, but it doesn’t fix the systemic problem long term. Most of the people who are homeless or need help don’t want to abide by the rules for a free place to stay or get the help they need. They’d rather stay on the streets and live life how they see fit. This isn’t a political opinion either. It’s a reality of failed policies of the city.
In the last month in San Francisco.
- Someone was shot on my doorstep at 6am. Survived.
- My friend was woken up on the couch when a bullet landed at his feet. (Was fired up in the air and came down through a skylight).
- My wife found a homeless person so dead they had rigor mortis
- We tried to buy a house and failed when it had 37 other offers<p>I still love this place, and its been my home for 15 years but it ain't easy.
I had a guess it would be Hayes Valley.<p>Not because there are few b8ta stores but because there is no way that will continue to be considered a nice neighborhood<p>For months after the first lockdown, the place practically had a favela setup across $6500/mo rental units until someone tricked business owners in signing a petition to summon the police to come with clubs. The police did come and clear it out.<p>And the Walgreens being continually emptied out despite not being on the main Market St or other typically decrepit neighborhoods was a sign that people would not ignore the place anymore<p>Pretty much every currently “nice neighborhood” was super sketch during the time periods of SF that people seem to reminisce about
For anyone outside of SF / US is wondering:<p>"b8ta is a retail-as-a-service company with a chain of 22 standalone retail stores, which serve as presentation centers for consumer electronics and home goods. Companies can pay to rent out space for their product to be displayed inside the locations, along with a tablet that each brand customizes with software."<p>Source: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B8ta" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B8ta</a>
I wonder if the Union square Apple store has this issue, or if PR keeps it hush.<p>I'd imagine it would be really bad for business if customers found out, and they print money at that location
I'm not sure how you solve this. They stock products that are smallish, and easily convertible to cash, so robberies are going to happen.<p>The Devialet speaker in the article is a good example. Retails for over $3k, and weighs 12kg.