Small businesses pay ultimate price as crime wave continues battering communities across the nation

Small businesses from coast to coast have closed up shop this year in response to rampant crimes that threaten the safety of their employees and customers, and oftentimes, left them with hefty bills to clean up break-ins and loss of merchandise. The business owners' stories vary, but all have found a common theme: Crime and other issues like drug use need to be cleaned up in America's cities or businesses will continue to suffer. 

"Somebody goes out and does something that is wrong. It’s wrong. So they should have … mandatory jail time for certain offenses like breaking and entering," San Antonio business owner Ana Fernandez told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

Fernandez was forced to close her brick-and-mortar location for Chamoy City Limits, a restaurant famed for its chili and other Tex-Mex classics, back in November after facing eight crime incidents in just eight months. She is still doing catering orders and operating a food truck. 

The business owner recounted the "most egregious" crime incident she faced was when the air conditioner on Chamoy City Limits' roof abruptly stopped working. She called a repairman, bracing for what she thought would be a routine albeit costly repair. 

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Instead, the repairman said the air conditioner was not on the roof at all. Someone had stolen the unit to sell it for scrap metal, Fernandez told Fox News Digital. Chamoy City Limits was not able to get a new air conditioner until August, meaning employees had to work through nearly the entire Texas summer with no air conditioning. 

Fernandez is one of dozens of business owners across the country who put their foot down on exposing themselves, customers, and even their finances to America’s crime spike. 

The U.S. witnessed a violent crime spike in 2020, with murders increasing by nearly 30% compared to the year prior, according to FBI data. It marked the largest single-year increase in killings since the agency began tracking the crimes.

In 2020’s violent crime wake, property crimes, drug use and other issues have continued plaguing some communities. 

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One clothing retailer in Portland, Oregon, gained national attention this fall when it posted a blistering note to its front door announcing it was closing the location and charging that Portland is "in peril."

"Small businesses (and large) cannot sustain doing business, in our city’s current state. We have no protection, or recourse, against the criminal behavior that goes unpunished. Do not be fooled into thinking that insurance companies cover losses. We have sustained 15 break-ins … we have not received any financial reimbursement since the 3rd," a note posted to the Rains PDX store in Portland read. 

The store owner said that after 15 break-ins over the last year and a half, there was no way to sustain the losses. 

A popular live entertainment venue and winery in Washington, D.C., called City Winery, announced this month it was closing its location in the Ivy City neighborhood over crime and would relocate elsewhere. 

A bar in New Orleans, called the Portside Lounge, closed this summer over crime "chasing people away at an elevated rate," Eater New Orleans reported. 

"In February, we had three back-to-back shootings. After the second one, I was like guys, you need to bring the police here. It’s unacceptable, it's gonna happen again."

- Seattle pastry shop owner Olga Sagan

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In Seattle, the owner of famed pastry shop Piroshky Piroshky announced in February it was closing a location in the city’s downtown area over "countless safety concerns."

"In February, we had three back-to-back shootings," Olga Sagan, owner of Piroshky Piroshky, told Fox News Digital in a phone interview this month of what crimes unfolded near the bakery’s location. "After the second one, I was like guys, you need to bring the police here. It’s unacceptable, it's gonna happen again."

After a third shooting happen near the store, "we just shut down because my employees didn't feel safe. It was really messy," Sagan added. 

Sagan said the area was a drug market mecca, describing it as the "opposite" of a festive and family-friendly Christmas market but with a similar setup, citing rampant drug sales and abuse. 

"Absolutely there's no doubt about it," Sagan told Fox when asked if this recent crime wave is the worst she has seen since leading the company more than 20 years ago. "I have never seen anything as bad."

Months after the shootings and closing the location, Sagan announced she will reopen the doors of the downtown location and see if crime issues have eased and if more customers are out on the streets. 

Businesses were hit with a one-two punch since 2020: the pandemic’s lockdowns that throttled sales as people hunkered down at home and then a crime wave that has now lasted years. 

"Theft is an issue. It’s higher than what it has historically been." 

- Walmart CEO Doug McMillon

For Fernandez in San Antonio, she highlighted that once businesses began closing up shop for coronavirus-related reasons, the remaining shops were left vulnerable to crime. 

Crimes started increasing for her "when businesses around us started to close due to the pandemic," she said. 

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Sagan reported similar findings in her remarks.

"I feel that a lot of businesses have closed in the last couple of years due to COVID and other reasons," Sagan said. "So there's a lot of vacant spaces … [The vacant spaces] end up being filled out by people who are using drugs and doing a whole bunch of other activities because there is no foot traffic."

The recent crime wave has even hit big box stores and national chains, with the National Retail Federation  reporting earlier this year that crimes against stores have ballooned to a $100 billion problem. 

"Theft is an issue. It’s higher than what it has historically been," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, for example, told CNBC’s "Squawk Box" earlier this month. He added that if the crime wave is not halted soon and if prosecutors don't bring charges against shoplifters, "prices will be higher, and/or stores will close."

Small business owners are calling on customers to continue supporting them and for perpetrators to be held to account for their crimes. 

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"People just need to keep supporting small businesses. Government needs to support small businesses," Sagan said.