Online retail sales increase with every passing year – and it’s easy to see why. You don’t have to worry about an item being out of stock, you don’t have to wait in lines to check out, and the entire process is just easier.
We see the result of online retail sales around every city, however. Major retailers shut their doors and fail to re-open elsewhere. They spend their money, instead, on enhancing the online shopping experience with such things as augmented reality so people can “try on” the items virtually.
What has happened with Nike recently is a perfect example of why it’s easier to shop online.
The Nike store in Portland, Oregon, was initially shuttered temporarily. It was because of the rampant theft that was happening not only in the store but elsewhere around the city.
Keep in mind that this was its flagship Community Factory Store.
Nike has now decided that the store will be permanently closed.
According to the executive director of the Soul District Business Association, John Washington, who oversees that entire shopping area, it is “a major economic blow.”
Nike isn’t the only one closing a store because of rampant theft.
You can see it all throughout San Francisco, Beverly Hills, and other parts of California, too. After too much theft, stores don’t find it to be financially sound to have a presence on a street where there’s crime. Especially when city officials aren’t doing anything to deter the crime.
Washington stated, “We had all been holding our breath since last November when the store quietly shuttered its doors due to internal and external theft and safety issues. But, like so many of us riding out the fallout of the pandemic and protests, we held out hope that Nike, city officials and community leaders would recalibrate and realign order. But it looks like it’s game over.”
Portland may have to use Nike’s store closure as a wake-up call to take some serious action if they want to protect other stores. If they don’t want to feel the economic impact, they’ll have to work with the Portland Police – and reinstitute programs that allow the PD to have more of a presence on the streets.
In the meantime, if your favorite store has closed, you can support them online. And if you don’t feel safe shopping in various districts, virtually every major store has a website.
While shopping online may seem a bit impersonal, it’s the way the world is shifting – especially when the Democrats would rather focus on supporting criminals than stopping crime.
