In the summer of 2020, Portland, like many cities, saw a spike in crime that hasn’t abated. Your Survival Guy has been watching the poor business owners of Portland plead for help as the city sinks under a crime wave. Murders have soared as the city has defunded its police force. Many small business owners have fled the city, and they aren’t alone. Big businesses have also been pulling their stores from Portland. Walmart has now announced it will close its last two stores in the city after constant thefts made it impossible to do business there. Alex Hammer reports for The Daily Mail:
Walmart has said it is permanently closing its last two stores in Portland – months after its CEO warned of a historic rise in thefts.
The sites, located at the Delta Park and Eastport Plaza shopping centers in North and Southeast Portland, will shutter on March 24.
The retail giants said it is closing the stores – which serve as a haven for low-income shoppers across the city – because they were not meeting financial expectations.
That said, the closures serve as the latest instance of businesses relocating or closing shop altogether amid a pronounced rise in crime and homelessness.
The mass exodus has been carried out by owners fed-up with the Portland’s sad state, and officials’ subsequent failure to quell both crises.
Once hailed as the ‘crown jewel of the West’ for its trendy art and food scenes, the city has already seen a Portland Nike store shut down last year due to mass shoplifting, as well as a popular retail store in the city’s downtown that was broken into 15 times over the course of just two months.
Portland’s current predicament has persisted since the pandemic, and will now deprive residents of two of the last remaining convenient and cost-effective outlets at a time of surging food costs and economic uncertainty.
Action Line: Residents are fleeing Portland because its leaders don’t seem to care about their plight. They’re heading to places like my 2023 Super States. Click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter if you want your family to live free, safe, and happy in America.
