In-N-Out to Close Only Oakland Store as Crime Ravages California

Oakland's only In-N-Out Burger store is set to shut its doors in a few weeks due to a rise in crime in the city, the company's Chief Operating Officer Denny Warnick said in a statement on Sunday.

The fast-food chain counts a total of 286 restaurants in the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Texas. It said it has taken the decision to close the Oakland store, despite several measures to make the restaurants safer for staff members and patrons.

While a rise in crime in downtown San Francisco in the post-pandemic years made national headlines, a similar upsurge of violence across the Bay, in Oakland, made much less noise—despite the fact that the city might have struggled even more.

Newsweek contacted In-N-Out Burger for comment by email on Monday.

"We have made the decision to close our In-N-Out Burger location in Oakland, California, due to ongoing issues with crime," Warnick said in a statement. "Despite taking repeated steps to create safer conditions, our Customers and Associates are regularly victimized by car break-ins, property damage, theft, and armed robberies."

Oakland is often considered a cheaper alternative to San Francisco for artists and young professionals. It has reported a rise in homelessness since COVID-19, with the number of unhoused people swelling by more than 1,000 since 2020, as reported by The New York Times.

Crime rates have also risen since the pandemic. Oakland's branch of NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) wrote a letter to the city's politicians last July urging them to tackle "our intolerable public safety crisis that overwhelmingly impacts minority communities."

The letter spoke of "murders, shootings, violent armed robberies, home invasions, car break-ins, sideshows, and highway shootouts" having become "a pervasive fixture of life in Oakland."

NeighborhoodScout is a website and online database that provides crime, lifestyle, school performance and real-estate information about all neighborhoods across the U.S. It says that Oakland has one of the highest crime rates in the country "compared to all communities of all sizes, from the smallest towns to the very largest cities."

The California city has a crime rate of 81 per 1,000 residents, with residents having 1 in 12 chances of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime. Oakland's crime rates are higher than most other communities in California, according to the website.

The chance of becoming a victim of a violent crime in Oakland is 1 in 65, while, in California as a whole, it is 1 in 200. The latest data, updated to 2022, says that the city counted 121 murders, 331 cases of rapes, 2,772 robberies and 3,355 cases of assault in that year.

It is the ongoing rise in violent crimes that has led to In-N-Out Burger's decision to close its only store in the city. It was opened some 18 years ago, and its last day in operation is set to be Sunday, March 24.

"This location remains a busy and profitable one for the company, but our top priority must be the safety and well-being of our Customers and Associates—we cannot ask them to visit or work in an unsafe environment," Warnick said.

The In-N-Out Burger COO said that the company will continue supporting the Oakland community through charitable work and that all workers affected by the closure will "have the opportunity to transfer to a nearby In-N-Out location or, alternatively, receive a severance package."

The fast-food chain is not the only company to shut its stores in the city amid the rise of violent crimes. In late September 2023, Target announced that some of its stores in Oakland, as well as San Francisco and Pittsburgh, were to shut their doors the following month to protect "team member and guest safety," citing the threats of retail thefts and other crimes.

California's Governor Gavin Newsom has been criticized on social media for the closure of the Oakland store, with some blaming the Democrat for the rise in crime in the city.

"For the first time in the company's history, In N Out is closing a location," Kevin Dalton wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 2022. "It's due to crime. It's Gavin Newsom's lawless California."

"This is Gavin Newsom's 'model for the nation,'" California Rep. Kevin Kiley, a Republican, wrote on the social-media platform.

"Thank you, Gavin Newsom, for degrading a once lovely California city yet again," actor James Woods wrote on X, calling Oakland a "Democrat infested" city.

Newsweek contacted Newsom's office for comment by email on Monday.