BedBathandBeyond.com<\/a>. While they can still buy the company\u2019s products, the state will miss out on jobs, rent, equipment, and materials purchases. It will collect mainly sales taxes, with reduced income, business, or other related taxes. In effect, California has shot itself in the foot.<\/p>\nCalifornia Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s press office hit back with a reply on X, writing, \u201cAfter their bankruptcy and closure of every store, like most Americans, we thought Bed, Bath & Beyond no longer existed. We wish them well in their efforts to become relevant again as they try to open a 2nd store.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other retailers are following suit. Target, for example, closed more than half a dozen California locations in 2023, including three in the Bay Area, citing theft and threats to employees. California led the nation with over 50,000 reported shoplifting cases in 2024, a 12% increase from the previous year, and shoplifting rose 28% statewide from 2019 to 2023. In fact, 2023 saw the highest level of reported shoplifting since 1998.<\/p>\n
The passage of Proposition 47 a decade ago, which downgraded certain thefts to misdemeanors, coincided with a surge in chronic offenders. The share of theft offenders who reoffended four or more times increased by 12 percentage points, while theft convictions among repeat offenders rose 14 points. Two years after Prop 47, the clearance rate for property crime fell by 3%, dropping further to just 7% in 2022, meaning offenders today are about half as likely to be apprehended as in 2014. Although voters reinstated felony penalties for shoplifting in 2024, retailers say the broader problem persists.<\/p>\n
The retail industry has borne the brunt. Nationwide, theft cost businesses $112.1 billion, with 88% of retailers reporting shoplifters had become more aggressive. Among companies tracking organized retail crime (ORC), incidents surged 57% between 2022 and 2023, with ORC alone costing an average of $703,320 per $1 billion in sales. California saw a 69% increase in store closures from 2023 to 2024, with more than 7,100 closures projected by November, up from 5,548 the year before.<\/p>\n
At the same time, California employers face some of the highest labor costs in the country. The statewide minimum wage rose to $16.50 per hour in 2025, more than double the federal level, while fast food workers are paid $20 an hour. Some cities impose even higher rates, such as Mountain View at $19.20 and El Cerrito at $18.34.<\/p>\n
These rising costs coincide with a steep decline in labor participation among less-educated Californians: down 14.6% for those without a high school diploma and 10.4% for high school graduates without college since 2003.<\/p>\n
Other costs add to the burden. Cyber insurance premiums jumped as much as 100% in 2023, though increases eased to 5.6% in 2024. Management liability coverage rose nearly 19% in 2023, followed by another 8% in 2024. Inflation continues to push claims costs higher, directly impacting premiums.<\/p>\n
To cope, retailers are spending heavily on security, averaging $700 million annually on loss-prevention strategies. In 2023, three-quarters of retailers increased uniformed security officers in stores, and nearly 60% planned to add more in 2024.<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t only retailers taking a stand. Several major corporations have issued similar statements or moved operations in response to California\u2019s business climate. After 145 years in the state, Chevron announced it was relocating to Texas.<\/p>\n
CEO Mike Wirth explained, \u201cWe believe California has a number of policies that raise costs, that hurt consumers, that discourage investment and ultimately\u2026 that\u2019s not good for the economy in California and for consumers.\u201d As early as 2019, Wirth had warned that the state\u2019s policies had become \u201cpretty restrictive on a lot of business fronts, not just the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elon Musk has also criticized California for driving a corporate exodus, comparing the state to a once-successful sports team that has grown complacent: \u201cYou have a forest of redwoods and the little trees can\u2019t grow.\u201d In July, he said a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on school notification policies was \u201cthe final straw\u201d after years of measures that, in his view, attacked both families and companies.<\/p>\n
Other high-profile companies that have relocated include Tesla, McKesson, Charles Schwab, CBRE, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Palantir, AECOM, FICO, SpaceX, and Oracle. A Hoover Institution report found that 74 corporate headquarters left California in the first half of 2021 alone, many citing affordability concerns.<\/p>\n
Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council, called the departures \u201can embarrassment for California,\u201d blaming \u201cmisguided policies that make it incredibly difficult to do business here.\u201d He urged lawmakers to confront a \u201creckoning,\u201d pointing to housing shortages, rising energy costs, and constant regulation.<\/p>\n
Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Other high-profile companies that have relocated include Tesla, McKesson, Charles Schwab, CBRE, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Palantir, AECOM, FICO, SpaceX, and Oracle. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":314091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","category-Economics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314089"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":314093,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314089\/revisions\/314093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/314091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}