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Amazon is the next company to shut down a Downtown Seattle store amid "safety" concerns, according to KING 5.
The Amazon Go store at Fourth Avenue and Pike Street will temporarily shut down "for the safety of our store employees, customers, and third-party vendors, and are hopeful conditions in the area will improve and we can reopen in the future," according to a company spokesperson on Friday (August 5). Employees at this location has been offered positions at other nearby stores.
Other companies and business owners have stopped service in the area amid ongoing crime concerns. Last month, Starbucks shut down five downtown locations due to complaints from both customers and employees.
In February, Piroshky Piroshky, a popular bakery in Seattle, closed its Third Avenue location "until further notice." The announcement came a day after a deadly shooting in the area.
"We have been patiently communicating with a city for the last 6 months, but things only getting worse," Olga Sagan, Piroshky Piroshky's owner, told KOMO at the time. "We feel that city has abandoned downtown and not treating this crisis (both humanitarian and criminal) as an emergency. All we hear is them talking and no action."
KING 5 says the Seattle Police Department has dedicated six police officers to Third Avenue alone and launched a mobile police precinct in the area.