the slew of closures of retail stores in san francisco in recent months doubles as a roundup of wellknown shopping brands whole foods old navy and nordstrom among others nearly half of the stores in the citys downtown shopping district have closed since 2019 the san francisco standard found in may in june the 70store downtown westfield mall said it would stop making payments on a 558 million loan relinquishing ownership of the shopping center and leaving the fate of the complex uncertain dubbed a retail exodus the trend has spurred criticism focused on crime and homelessness but a more complicated set of forces is driving companies away from the city experts and a former downtown store owner told abc news a diminished sense of safety among some shoppers has deterred foot traffic downtown they said additionally they pointed to sluggish sales at some stores due in part to a longstanding shift away from brickandmortar retail that went into overdrive during the pandemic in this april 28 2023 file photo district attorney brooke jenkins speaks about the new state public safety partnership targeting fentanyl trafficking and drug rings in san francisco sheila fitzgeraldshutterstock file the rise of remote work a trend even more pronounced in the bay areas tech industry also has slashed the number of office commuters who previously drove lunchtime business and afterhours shopping downtown experts said more middle fingers complaints workers caught in culture wars face harassment its all of the above wade rose the president of business advocacy group advance sf told abc news these dynamics are bigger than the city crime he added makes up part of the narrative it isnt the full narrative the office of san francisco mayor london breed did not immediately respond to abc news request for comment last month breed told good morning america that san francisco faces difficulties but she also faulted a disproportionate focus on exits from the city san francisco is a major city and it has challenges breed said but lets back up a little bit you are talking about people who are leaving the city but not the people who are staying expanding coming to san francisco in april whole foods opted to close its flagship location in downtown san francisco to ensure worker safety the company said in a statement to abc news at the time noting that all of the employees would be transferred to nearby locations we have made the difficult decision to close the trinity store for the time being the company said old navy which closed its store in downtown san francisco in may shared a statement made by its parent company gap at the time old navy is always evaluating its real estate portfolio to ensure a healthy fleet of stores that can provide the best possible experience for our customers the statement said as a result we have taken the difficult decision to close our market street store when the lease expires and we are already