RIP Beverly Hills: Startling video shows how once-thriving shopping mecca is now a desolate wasteland as high-end shops, banks, and restaurants shutter their doors amid …

A new video documenting the large and growing number of high-profile stores in Beverly Hills that have closed in recent months and years, places renewed emphasis on the crisis facing the retail sector in most major cities.

The video, posted by an account called cody90210, shows some 11 popular Beverly Hills retail stops now entirely shuttered, including the iconic former Barneys location, Brooks Brothers, All Saints, and the high end women’s fashion boutique Escada. Both Escada and Barneys filed for bankruptcy in recent years.

The closed shops, which also include popular convenience retailers like Rite Aid and Chipotle, and even popular workout class option SoulCycle have shuttered their doors on Wilshire Boulevard, leaving the area bereft of some of its former appeal.

The reasons for the ample number of closures vary, as many brands see a decrease in demand for in-person retail experiences, while others pivot business strategies following acquisitions by other brands. The downturned economy has also negatively impacted most brands, but especially those marketing luxury products.

While stores lining Wilshire Boulevard were once popular spots for celebrities of the moment to have their pictures captures and circulated by paparazzi, the relevance of that type of media coverage has dwindled in the age of social media. 

Business in Beverly Hills, and Los Angeles in general, are also in the midst of contending with a major spike in crime that has left many stores defenseless against mobs of robbers. 

Barneys New York closed its iconic Beverly Hills store – a formerly popular stop for celebrities and the elite of the area to spend a few hours

Last month, stunned bystanders caught the shocking moment a gang of at least 30 brazen thieves ransacked a Yves Saint Laurent store in an upscale California shopping center.

Videos posted online showed multiple people in dark clothes, hoods and masks running into and then quickly out of the store at the Americana at Brand shortly before 5pm Tuesday.

Glendale police said the thieves got away with about $300,000 worth of merchandise, after they overwhelmed the staff and took everything they could in less than a minute.

None of the thieves used any weapons in the brazen scheme, and no injuries were reported.

An investigation is ongoing, as California continues to deal with an increased number of significant robberies after officials lowered the punishment for theft of items valued at less than $950.

Across California brazen robberies have become more rampant as lawmakers continue to lower the penalty for such crimes.

Those convicted can in theory face six months in a county jail, but in most cases cops don’t bother pressing charges.

The California Senate also passed legislation in May that prevents employees from confronting active shooters or shoplifters in California.

Supporters of the protocol say it protects staff from violence, but stores and employees say the move will only embolden further shoplifting, which the evidence appears to be bearing out.

The Brooks Brothers in Beverly Hills shuttered permanently as the brand continues to evaluate its failing business strategy

The old Beverly Hills Niketown store back in 2013

Over the last fifteen years, the novelty of the celebrity spotting at Beverly Hills shopping stops has worn off. Here, Dustin Hoffman is pictures in a Porsche after a stop at Barnet’s New York in Beverly Hills

Even more recently, a group of thieves stole $300,000 worth of luxury goods from a Nordstrom at the Westfield Topanga Mall near Calabasas.

The gang of more than 30 criminals adorned themselves in black and covered their faces during a raid of the store in August.

Videos circulated online show the thieves grabbing luxury goods from brands like Yves Saint Laurent, Burberry and Bottega Veneta.

Deputy Police Chief of the LAPF Alan Hamilton said after the robbery was likely the result of organized criminal planning.

‘Some of it involves gang members, some of it involves people that are what you would identify as professional retail thieves.

‘It runs the gamut, and there is a black market for purchasing these items, unfortunately. 

‘The same people [are] then turning around and committing these acts again, over and over again.

‘The way this type of crime typically works, a lot of the times they will already know where they’re going to offload these goods to.

‘Those goods are going to be separated from the people that were involved in the crime very quickly. 

‘They’re not going to be keeping it in places for days or anything like that.’

This type of brutal ransacking and reselling of luxury goods became relatively commonplace during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when high end stores in cities where protests and riots were going on became targets. 

The same Nordstrom store at Westfield Topanga, was looted in November 2021 when robbers attacked a security guard with bear spray and stole designer purses

Los Angeles Police Protective League spokesperson Tom Saggau told Fox News Digital that he believes the surge to be due to a zero cash bail policy.

He told the outlet: ‘The elimination of cash bail for these types of offenses is really an invitation to these kind of folks who are inclined to break the law and inclined to do it so brazenly.’

The policy means individuals who are arrested and charged with a crime are then released from custody without having to pay bail money upfront.