Starbucks to close New Orleans due to safety concerns

A popular Starbucks location in New Orleans will close next month due to safety concerns, just weeks after Starbucks' top executive said crime will force stores across the country to close.

Starbucks spokesman Sam Jefferies said the closure in New Orleans was a result of challenges to personal safety and security, racism, a growing mental health crisis and issues magnified by COVID.

The Starbucks location of Canal Street has been in business for nine years. It will close on October 3.

Senior vice presidents of U.S. operations for Starbucks said in July that workers are seeing firsthand the challenges facing our communities - personal safety, racism, lack of access to healthcare, a growing mental health crisis, rising drug use, and more.

Interim Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said that the initial closures were just the beginning and more permanent closures were anticipated.

Schultz said in a video posted on social media in July that stores are beginning to close because of safety issues. This is just the beginning. There are going to be many more. New Orleans became the country's murder capital, at 52 homicides per 100,000 residents as of Sept. 11, according to data from the Metropolitan Crime Commission. New Orleans has more than doubled the number of homicides in other notoriously dangerous cities, such as St. Louis and Chicago.

The data shows that homicides in New Orleans are up 141% when compared to 2019 and up 78% when compared to 2021.

Five other Starbucks locations in New Orleans' downtown area will remain open, and other business owners along Canal Street say they have no plans to shut down, Fox 8 reported.

Starbucks has had a little bit of a problem. One closure shouldn't symbolize this entire street, and that is my concern, said David Rubenstein, owner of Canal Street clothing store Rubenstein s, told Fox 8. Everything is not perfect, but the world has changed. We are concerned, but we are very happy at this spot. He said that his biggest concern for the area is the homeless people drinking and sleeping along Canal Street.

Rubenstein said it was not what people like to see.

Jewelry store owner Tiffany Adler, a business leader in the area, lamented how she has seen criminal activity in the area, but her store has not been affected.

Security is always a concern in the metropolitan area. I believe that other metropolitan cities all over the country are having similar issues. Adler said we are trying to do the best for our merchants, our customers, and everyone to do their part to sort of self-police.

Starbucks didn't respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment on the matter Sunday morning.