A District of Columbia shopping area once symbolic of the city’s renaissance will lose another business next month due to repeated theft.

The news of the closure comes after a nationwide study that found retail workers want to change jobs because of crime.

Petco confirmed that its store at the DC USA mall will shutter Jan. 12. In a statement, the San Diego-based company said the closure comes as it evaluates its real estate portfolio.

The statement didn’t mention theft, which is what one local Petco employee said chipped away at the business’ viability.

The employee said criminals regularly swipe cans and bags of animal food before running out of the store. Managers sometimes try — and fail — to catch the thieves, he said.

The employee came to the U.S. from Turkey less than a year ago and said he heard about crime in American cities while living abroad, but it was “more than I expected once I got here.”

Petco opened at the mall in 2013, joining a shopping center pitched as the “cornerstone” of Columbia Heights’ “revitalization efforts” by operator Grid Properties Inc.

The pet store’s closure will be the second major company in a year to leave the neighborhood over its crime woes.

Across the street, the site of a former CVS Pharmacy that closed in February remains empty. Shoplifters ransacked the store so often, it made national headlines for its barren shelves.

The local Petco’s issues with theft are not nearly as severe, but a city-contracted security guard who sits outside the store said he often sees thieves brazenly steal merchandise from the business.

He said it’s the same handful of teenagers or young adults behind the thefts. They shoplift from the pet store and DSW next to it, the guard said, because they’re “just looking for something to do.”

A DSW employee said the shoe outlet does experience theft, but he hasn’t heard anything from his bosses about the store possibly closing.

The unarmed guard said his only obligation is to report the thefts. He’s not required to stop shoplifters, and he criticized DSW for letting known thieves back into the store to cause mayhem.

“They’re not doing anything to stop it, so I’m not going to go out of my way to confront people,” the guard told The Washington Times. “I ride the Metro to work. I don’t want them following me home.”

That fear of workplace crime leaking into their personal lives is motivating retail employees to consider leaving their jobs, according to a study conducted by the Loss Prevention Research Council in partnership with retail security firm Verkada.

The study found that 40% of employees surveyed said they’ll quit their retail jobs in the next year due to “personal safety concerns.”

Most of that fear arises from witnessing theft (60%). More than half of the 1,000 respondents also said they experienced or witnessed threats (54%) or verbal harassment (51%) from shoppers.

Read Hayes, the executive director of the Loss Prevention Research Council, said the disorder at retail businesses nationwide is causing workers to question if — and possibly when — criminals could become more hostile.

“They’re not attacking people right now, but they’re taking their stuff, and they don’t seem to be overly concerned that there might be some consequences,” Mr. Hayes told The Times.

Over half (52%) of retail workers in cities said they experienced some form of violence on the job, according to the study, while 40% of suburban retail workers said the same. Grocery stores and big box retailers, such as Target and Walmart, are the two places where employees were victimized the most.

A majority of workers who experienced violence (67%) said they were looking to change jobs.

The study found that women felt more unsafe at work (31%) compared with men (24%).

A majority of women (65%) and men (56%) said they’ve witnessed theft at their job.

Store managers were more likelier to rate their business’ security measures favorably (50%) as opposed to cashiers (41%) and sales associates (37%).

Mr. Hayes said the disconnect between managers and their employees may be due to the bosses often running through a mental checklist while employees interact with customers or notice potential problems at a micro level.

The researcher suggested the retail shopping experience will undergo major changes in the near future. He said stores want to “increase the effort” that it takes for thieves to steal, but businesses also want to reward good customers with special sales or ways to access secured items without needing employee assistance.

Mr. Hayes floated the idea of using your cellphone number as a digital key to unlock protective casings or using facial recognition technology to serve that same function.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.