REI flees Portland after theft wave, car ramming store

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

On the worst possible day of the year for a business, Black Friday, someone rammed their car through the front doors of the Portland REI outdoor store as a way to loot the store last year.

Now REI is announcing that they are leaving the City of Portland.   REI states, “The safety of our employees, members and customers is always our number one priority. In recent years, Portland has been dealing with increased crime in our neighborhood and beyond. Last year, REI Portland had its highest number of break-ins and thefts in two decades, despite actions to provide extra security.” 

A headline a few weeks ago shows that as crime spiked in Portland, the politicians asked businesses to do more to stop the crime.

It turns out, businesses like REI did indeed do more.

They hired extra security, but it didn’t work.

You can’t hire enough security officials to stem a crime wave and lack of police response when a criminal has been caught.   The NIKE North Portland store was facing nearly a daily apprehension of shoplifters (that’s apprehensions, not counting all the undiscovered or uncaught  shoplifters).   That very NIKE store has been closed, just like REI will be closing.   Also, like REI, NIKE at one time during the crime wave had to board up their stores.

— A local Pizza chain, Hot Lips Pizza, just announced that they are closing most of their stores — it was the first employee reduction in 40 years.

— Cracker Barrel announced they are closing their Portland area stores.

— Walmart is closing their Portland stores.   Yet, the politicians and media BLAMED Walmart, not the crime wave, for the exit.

— As we speak, the liberal led Oregon Senate just voted down a package of anti-crime bills.

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