In-N-Out Burger says it will close its first location in its 75-year history due to a wave of car break-ins, property damage, theft and robberies affecting customers and employees alike at its only restaurant in Oakland, California.

The fast-food burger joint in a busy corridor near Oakland International Airport will close on March 24 because even though the company has taken “repeated steps to create safer conditions our Customers and Associates are regularly victimized,” Denny Warnick, In-N-Out’s chief operating officer, said in a statement Wednesday.

  • hperrin@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Why not hire a security guard? This sounds like some packaged bullshit trying to blame downsizing on crime, just like CVS did a couple years ago.

    • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Oaklander here. Crime might be down nationwide, but it is up a LOT here. It’s quite sad. Big franchises aside, a lot of small local businesses haven’t been able to withstand the crime wave. Lots of my favorite mom and pop places are closing up and saying that they just can’t deal with the cost and stress of continued robbery / burglary.

      But as for this place, there are cameras and guards in that lot, as well as employees taking orders. People still smash and grab, even in broad daylight.

      This part of town is really struggling, by the airport, and thieves know the rental cars are almost guaranteed to have luggage. No one that lives here is shocked by this news. This is not Walgreens locking up soap in a place with dropping crime. This area is legitimately struggling with some big problems.

        • BobGnarley@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          What is wrong with Oakland? Poverty. That’s usually the number one factor for rising crime rates anywhere

            • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              One year of crime stats doesn’t measure change. Your argument is that the crime rate went up. You would need to provide numbers for at least ten years and ideally 20 or 30 to say anything about crime trends.

              If you try and reply again be sure to include the metrics for which crimes went up, and which ones went down in the years you’re concerned with. I think you’ll find virtually everywhere in America is the same, and that violent crime has been on a consistent downward trend for the past thirty years and property and drug crimes have occasional spikes that track concurrently with significant economic disruptions.

              Causes and solutions to criminal behavior are not a mystery. The only reason crime is still a significant problem in America is because on half of the voting public can’t hold back their emotions and insist on using criminal justice to exact revenge, rather than rehabilitate and prevent.

    • butwhyishischinabook@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Yeah it is, just like all that shit about how retail stores last year having to close because of crime AS CRIME WAS FUCKING PLUMMETING

      • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Crime is NOT plummeting in Oakland. Quite the opposite.

        I live here and have been in the area for decades. It’s legitimately bad now, and that parking lot is a shit show.

      • PopcornTin@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        *reported crime.

        At some point, store workers give up on calling in for your average shoplifter.

      • LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        was crime really plummeting at a time when we were seeing a slew of security videos showing mass amounts of organized smash-and-grabs all over California?

        • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          social media can let people believe what they want, but the retail org that claimed closed stores were from shoplifting retracted their claims after it was revealed they were unsourced hearsay. Most closures have been from low sales in office districts since remote work expanded

          • LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            social media

            no, It was security camera footage

            the retail org that claimed closed stores were from shoplifting retracted their claims after it was revealed they were unsourced hearsay

            yeah I read that article too. It was one article.

            vs several clips of security footage showing increased incidences of smash-and-grabs from dozens of different retail stores

            sure they closed cracker barrels and Walmarts and Targets and CVS stores in all the high-crime areas due to “low sales in office districts since remote work expanded.” sure.

            Is that the same reason those same stores we go to now have most of the products displayed behind locked cases which necessitates customers tracking down an employee just to purchase a pair of hair clipping scissors? Yes I kid you not, I wanted to buy a pair of hair clipping scissors from a Walmart in California a couple years ago and it was locked behind a case and I had to track down an employee just to purchase a pair of scissors that were locked behind a plexiglass case.

            do they keep all that merchandise locked behind a plexiglass case due to “low sales in office district since remote work expanded?” or due to increased incidences of theft?

            • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              the crime stats and lost goods in those stores were not particularly exceptional. What was exceptional was low sales at those stores.

              often when you get a clip, you don’t even know what the date is. I’ve seen people post shit from the 1980s saying it was yesterday. Clips show that something happened somewhere at some point, not that rates are going up or down.

              • jimbolauski@lemm.ee
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                11 months ago

                It’s both, in high theft areas you need more sales to offset your losses. Low sales and high theft will close a buisness fast.

    • StereoTrespasser@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I lived near a CVS that was constantly targeted for crime. It’s closing this month, and I honestly can’t imagine how it stayed open this long.

      You can pretend it’s packaged bullshit, but until you live in a city and experience it first-hand, you’ll stay in your pretty make-believe world.

      • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        They charge 85% markup on consumer shit.

        They aren’t closing because of crime. The ration of stolen items to sold items would have to be like 10 to 1.

        If half of their daily sales walked out the back door, they’d still be making money hand over fist.

    • Specal@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Idk, looking in from the outside adding a security guard usually ends up with someone dying in the US. Either the security guard tries to be John wick but ends up being a Paul blart or the security guard is a waste of salary as they go “why would I risk my life, fuck that.”.

      At best it would be a deterrent to young kids who get cocky.