A San Francisco neighborhood market owner says he's closing his doors after 35 years in business. He said its due to crime and little protection for employees.
For some longtime customers of Bayside Market, seeing a letter taped to their front doors announcing the market is closing was a bummer.
"We're disappointed to learn that our lovely neighborhood store was closing down and obviously, it's been a central part of the community,” said Rusell Anderson, a customer with the market.
Bayside Market owner David Pesusic said the cost of running any small business continues to rise by thousands between the rising price of inventory, insurance and his monthly PG&E bill. But the safety of his employees and the often violent responses they get when they regularly catch shoplifters is the main reason he's closing up shop.
"It's sucks. This is my livelihood," he said. "Some of them refuse to give it back. Fight us, try to fight us and or, they say 'Go ahead and call the police.' I'll wait for the police to show up. And they laugh in your face, because they know they're not going to show up.
Along with the harassment and violence, Pesusic said he's also had to resort to boarding up his windows at closing time because of repeated break-ins. And for those reasons, the Bayside Market will close on Friday.
Pesusic said he blames some of the problems he's been seeing on policy leaders at San Francisco City Hall.
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San Francisco District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey said he hopes to convince Pesusic to return when public safety improves.
But Pesusic said there's another challenge is a big drop in foot traffic during the week because nearby tech simply haven’t returned to offices. He said he'll continue to operate a second market at Sansome, which has managed to maintain some of it's regular customers.
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