Following the closure of Williams-Sonoma at 340 Post and T-Mobile’s flagship shop at 1 Stockton Street by the end of the year, San Francisco’s Union Square suffered two more significant losses on Monday. Pottery Barn on Chestnut Street has also shuttered, according to information provided to The Globe.
A Pattern Developing
Large companies and small businesses alike have been emigrating from San Francisco for a number of years, either to shut down permanently or move their operations elsewhere. Small enterprises have moved completely out of the neighborhood or to other parts of the state in the case of some of them. For instance, over the past few years, Walgreens has closed an increasing number of locations in the city as a result of the severe crime that occurs inside such locations.
Break-ins and crime have also been mentioned as important reasons why higher-end establishments have closed. And in the past two months alone, other independently owned retailers throughout the city, including all Amazon Go locations, Anthropologie, a number of upscale Union Square shops, and the flagship Whole Foods store, have all announced that they will be closing. Both Nordstrom and Saks Off 5th announced the closing of 3 major sites in the city less than a week ago.
T-Mobile Just Closed a Major Location!
Probable Reasons
While crime has been cited as the primary cause of many businesses leaving, high rent costs, a lack of customers coming in as a result of the city’s concurrent office exodus, the homeless crisis keeping many people away from parts of the city, and the general decline of retail have all contributed to the high number of businesses leaving. The main causes of the most recent departures, however, have been attributed to changing business strategy and the disruption caused by building sales to tenants.
In fact, T-Mobile’s flagship store, which had previously served as Apple’s primary outlet in the city, began to close its doors last month. However, because T-Mobile did not make a public announcement about it and clients were merely pointed in the right direction by signage outside, little attention had been paid to it.
