Walmart Closing Portland Stores amid Crime Wave: ‘Theft Is an Issue’

Walmart said it is closing all locations in Democrat-run Portland, Oregon, due to financial reasons as the city endures rampant crime, Fox Business reported Saturday.

“We have nearly 5,000 stores across the U.S. and unfortunately some do not meet our financial expectations. While our underlying business is strong, these specific stores haven’t performed as well as we hoped,” the company said.

On March 24, the doors of the Hayden Meadows and East Port Plaza locations will close. However, the 580 workers at those locations may transfer to the company’s stores outside the city, the Fox report continued.

Walmart’s CEO recently warned stores may shut their doors for good and prices may jump due to the extremely high number of retail crimes in stores all over the nation.

“Theft is an issue. It’s higher than what it has historically been,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon explained during an interview.

He also said the problems would continue if officials failed to hold shoplifting criminals accountable.

In a social media post on Friday, journalist Andy Ngô said the upcoming Walmart closures “follow the consequences of the 2020 BLM-Antifa riots that helped justify & normalize urban criminality & retail theft.”

Meanwhile, a report from February 2022 found “low morale” among those inside the Portland Police Bureau after the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots and crippling budget cuts.

Walmart has announced it will permanently close all its locations in Portland, Ore. Nearly 600 will lose their jobs. The closures follow the consequences of the 2020 BLM-Antifa riots that helped justify & normalize urban criminality & retail theft. https://t.co/LKx5FP1p1q

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) March 3, 2023

When asked about McMillon’s comments, a Walmart spokesperson told Fox there was not any one particular cause for why a store shuts down.

The spokesperson also noted, “We do a thorough review of how a store performs and weigh many factors before making the difficult decision to close a facility.”

A few months ago, Breitbart News reported Portland might soon lose an iconic ice cream shop, Salt & Straw, due to rampant local crime, drugs, and street camping that was making it harder for the business to thrive.

In November, Target said its stores were experiencing rampant looting, according to Breitbart News.

“There’s a handful of things that can drive shrink in our business and theft is certainly a key driver,” Target CFO Michael Fiddelke explained.