Due to an increase in violent crime and public safety issues, the convenience store chain, Wawa is reportedly considering leaving Philadelphia.
According to a Philadelphia Business Journal report, Philadelphia City Councilmember Mike Driscoll expressed concern that the company would forego millions of dollars worth of investment and countless jobs during a town hall meeting on Tuesday after recently meeting with Wawa executives.
Wawa is one of the biggest food retailers in Greater Philadelphia, even though it also has locations in several states along the East Coast.
“They’ve had to invest in security… security doesn’t add anything to your bottom line, it takes away from your bottom line, but without it, then you’re in deep trouble. So they are spending money, they’re losing money. The scariest part to me is one of the senior officials said, ‘We’re seriously considering moving out of the city of Philadelphia in our strategic planning, at least not to expand,” Driscoll said.
As videos of a mob of teens ransacking a Philadelphia Wawa store have gone viral on social media last month, the footage shows the swarm of about 100 juveniles trashing the store on the 7000 block of Roosevelt Boulevard around 8:22 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 24.
NEW VIDEO: Chaos erupted at this Wawa in Frankford as juveniles destroyed the store. The kids were also fighting in the parking lot. pic.twitter.com/TIs7acsFBQ
— PhillyCrimeUpdate (@PhillyCrimeUpd) September 25, 2022
“Wawa has invested a lot of money, as you know, into the city, They’ve already closed two Center City locations that they spent millions and millions of dollars on because of the lawlessness that was going on in their stores,” Driscoll continued.
In addition to implementing new security measures, convenience stores such as CVS and Walgreens are closing locations in cities such as San Francisco as over the last two years, smash-and-grab robberies have plagued urban America at an alarmingly high rate.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced the company would close more than a dozen locations in a number of cities, including Philadelphia, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Portland, earlier this year after criticizing American city leaders for failing to address homelessness and crime.
In footage obtained by The Post Millennial, Schultz said of conversations with employees, “It has shocked me that one of the primary concerns that our retail partners have is their own personal safety, and then we heard the stories that go along with it about what happens in our bathrooms, the issue of mental illness, the issue of homelessness, and the issue of crime.”
He continued, “Starbucks is a window into America,” although not unprofitable, the locations might not be the last to close. “We have stores in every community, and we are facing things… the stores were not built for. We are listening to our people and closing stores.”
According to data from the Philadelphia Police Department, there were a record 562 homicides in Philadelphia last year; however, murder rates are currently trending slightly lower than year-to-date totals. Larry Krasner, the district attorney for Philadelphia, has prioritized reforms to the criminal justice system, including lax bail laws and fewer prosecutions for specific crimes. State lawmakers launched an investigation into Krasner earlier this year.
“We don’t have a crisis of lawlessness, we don’t have a crisis of crime, we don’t have a crisis of violence, it’s important that we don’t let this become mushy and bleed into the notion that there is some kind of big spike in crime.” Krasner said at a press conference last year.
Sources: Dailywire, Conservativenewsdaily, Dailyvoice
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