Safeway follows Whole Foods, Macy’s, Sephora, Nordstrom, Adidas, and others in closing at least one store or moving out entirely. Most cite crime as reason enough to move.

The closure was announced in January but put off until next year at the behest of San Francisco Mayor London Breed. Safeway had already sold the building to Align Real Estate, which still owns the site, but Breed negotiated that the grocer stay there for enough time to develop a city plan there.

“The Webster Street Safeway is more than a grocery store — it serves as a space that brings together and builds community for the Fillmore neighborhood, which is home to many senior citizens and families,” Breed said in January.

Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie beat Breed in the November election, with the help of donors such as Camilo Acosta, the head of a fund that invests in artificial intelligence, who cited the city’s crime as a business deterrent. Acosta donated to Lurie’s campaign in hopes that his own business can operate without fear of further break-ins.

“Beyond the closure, we will continue to serve this community with our grocery delivery services and will work with our customers to transfer their prescriptions to another Safeway location or a location of their choice,” a Safeway spokesperson said in a statement. “We remain committed to serving San Francisco at our remaining 15 locations.”

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San Francisco’s real estate market has suffered, with the latest example being when the apartment complex for NEMA San Francisco‘s commercial mortgage-backed securities loan decreased for the second time. While the 2018 value was $543.6 million, the current loan is down 48% to $279 million.

Inbound moves to San Francisco have stagnated in the last couple of years, with a rate of 49.5%. In 2019, the rate was 54%, per the National Association of Realtors. California’s inbound moves did not outpace its outbound ones, as the state lost 0.3% of its population in 2022.