The Tide has run out for one grocery store in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
In a city where violent crime is up, one Giant Food market in the District announced that it is clearing out brand names from many of its aisles, meaning brands such as Tide, Colgate or Advil will no longer be available, according to The Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n The store will carry its own brands of such items.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to continue to be able to serve the community, but we can\u2019t do so at the level of significant loss or risk to our associates that we have today,\u201d Giant President Ira Kress said.<\/p>\n The grocery store is the last one in a neighborhood in the district\u2019s Ward 8.<\/p>\n In May, Giant Food tried increasing security<\/a> at its 165 stores in D.C., Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. High-theft items were removed from shelves and locked away. Security guards were hired.<\/p>\n Kress said at the Alabama Avenue SE store where national brands are going away, \u201cit\u2019s actually worse, not better. And we\u2019ve invested a significant amount of money here, even more security here than any other store.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have no other choice,\u201d Diane Hicks, senior vice president of operations, said Thursday as she brought local officials through the store.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been leaving it out for our customers, and unfortunately it just forces all the crime to come to us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Kress said he\u2019s hoping ridding the store of products with high resale value will lower theft.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to do this \u2014 I\u2019d like to sell [those products],\u201d he said. \u201cBut the reality is that Tide is not a profitable item in this store. \u2026 In many instances, people stock the product and within two hours it\u2019s gone, so it\u2019s not on the shelf anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n District police are reporting<\/a> that violent crime<\/a> is up 39 percent in 2023. Theft is up 24 percent, robbery is up 67 percent, and murders are up 29 percent.<\/p>\n Councilmember Trayon White had warned last month that theft might doom the store, according to WTTG<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cTaking from this store is really taking from yourself. We are home to a lot of senior citizens and elders who must eat at this store. And the more we take from this store, we put the store in jeopardy of closing down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In June, Kress said he was trying to find a solution<\/a> to the problem.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not a bank; we don\u2019t have vaults,\u201d he said then, according to WTTG<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t want to create an environment where everything is locked up in the stores. But I do not see today anything occurring which is going to significantly impact positively, the escalation that\u2019s occurring in either theft or violence.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes me feel like I live in a different world than where I used to live,\u201d Giant customer Damion Lynch said.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, it used to be you could go to any place you wanted to go, and you could feel safe and go shopping, do whatever you need. Now, you\u2019ve got to watch over your shoulder. I love Giant. I come here all the time. I like their products. When you come to a store though, you need to be able to feel free and safe to come. So, I don\u2019t feel it\u2019s just Giant\u2019s problem. I also feel it\u2019s the law enforcement and those who make the law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Post noted that other retailers are also battling rampant theft. \u201cOur team continues to face an unacceptable amount of retail theft and organized retail crime,\u201d Target Chief Executive Brian Cornell said last month. \u201cDuring the first five months of this year, our stores saw a 120 percent increase in theft incidents involving violence or threats of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n A National Retail Federation study released last year said organized retail crime<\/a> incidents rose 26.5 percent.<\/p>\n This article appeared originally on The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post Soaring DC Crime: Grocery Chain Ditches Name Brand Laundry Detergents in Favor of Ones No One Wants to Steal<\/a> appeared first on The Gateway Pundit<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Tide has run out for one grocery store in Washington, D.C. In a city where violent crime<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n