A clothing store in Portland, Oregon, posted a note announcing its closure this month and calling attention to rising crime in the city after it was hit by 15 break-ins in the past year and a half.
Rains PDX posted a note on its now-defunct storefront saying it had closed permanently “due to the constant, and unrelenting, criminal behavior, coupled with escalating safety issues for our employees.”
“Our city is in peril,” the shop wrote. “Small businesses (and large) cannot sustain doing business, in our city’s current state. We have no protection, or recourse, against the criminal behavior that goes unpunished. Do not be fooled into thinking that insurance companies cover losses. We have sustained 15 break-ins … we have not received any financial reimbursement since the 3rd.”
The owner at Rains tells me after five break-ins in about three weeks, she made the sudden decision to permanently close. Staff here are putting pressure on the city to look after small businesses dealing with ongoing challenges with crime. pic.twitter.com/XyP2p6PR6W
— Megan Allison (@mallisonKATU) November 26, 2022
After the series of break-ins, including five in three weeks, Rains PDX owner Marcy Landolfo told KATU 2 said the shop “cannot sustain those types of losses and stay in business.”
“I won’t even go into the numbers of how much has been out of pocket,” she said, adding that thieves have targeted very expensive winter products.
“I just felt like the minute I get those in the store they’re going to get stolen,” she added.
Landolfo said Mayor Ted Wheeler has not done enough to address crime in the city, despite his office saying after a Rains break-in last month that it was working on a plan to financially help business owners who need to repair their shops, per KATU 2.
“Paying for glass that’s great, but that is so surface and does nothing for the root cause of the problem, so it’s never going to change,” she told the local station.
The mayor’s office told Fox News that Wheeler and his team “understand that local businesses often must make a choice whether to pay out of pocket or file a claim with their insurance after a break-in.”
“For this reason, we’ve worked to increase funding for Business Repair Grants through Prosper Portland, and recently held a Retail Safety Summit to strategize with local business leaders and loss prevention specialists on the retail theft crisis. We are also working with interested property owners to streamline the permitting process to add enhanced lighting to storefronts, which can help deter nighttime break-ins,” the spokesperson told Fox News.
Portland is just one of several progressive cities that have been hard-hit by retail theft since the start of the pandemic. Organized retail crime increased by 26.5 percent in 2021, according to the National Retail Federation.