Nordstrom shuts down in SF due to crime surge, Dollar Store secures merchandise.
A nationwide crime wave is forcing many retailers, large and small, to close their doors or lock up their merchandise.
One example is Nordstrom, which is closing its flagship store in downtown San Francisco after 35 years in business, after making an announcement in May.
The location inside Westfield Mall said goodbye to its last customers on Aug. 27, after opening in October 1988.
The store at the corner of 5th and Market Streets, once occupied five floors and spanned over 312,000 square feet, but is now closing like many other retailers due to a surge in crime and poor sales.
San Francisco Centre has suffered from a rise in shoplifting, homelessness, and public drug use.
A Popular 35-Year Store Location Closes Its Doors
A former shopping staple in downtown San Francisco, the neighborhood’s “unsafe conditions for customers, retailers and employees,” made operations difficult to sustain, posted a member of the city’s Board of Supervisors, Matt Dorsey.
The now-empty Nordstrom location has been described by local news outlets as desolated with countless empty displays and mannequins packaged away.
Other major retailers in the area, including Old Navy Whole Foods, AT&T, Anthropologie, AmazonGo, Office Depot, and Saks Off Fifth Avenue, closed earlier this summer.
Remaining stores have been forced to lock up their stock to deter shoplifters.
Nordstrom Rack, across the street from the flagship location, shut down operations in June.
Even the Westfield Mall announced in June it would be closing, after operating on Market Street for more than 20 years, reported the local TV news station KRON4.
The future viability of the San Francisco Centre shopping district is uncertain.
His ad was addressed to Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor London Breed, accusing them of dereliction of duty, caused by the collapse of law and order.
“Today, as we prepare for our 166th holiday season at 250 Post Street, we fear this may be our last because of the profound erosion of this city’s conditions,” wrote Mr. Chachas, adding “San Francisco now suffers from a ‘tyranny of the minority’ – behavior and actions of the few that jeopardize the livelihood of the many.”
Jeff Clark, a former Assistant Attorney at the Department of Justice under former President Donald Trump, tweeted, “Nordstrom store in San Francisco forced to close. The crime is unbearable. And the crime has grown to such intolerable heights mainly because smash-and-grab crimes at the city’s retailers aren’t being prosecuted. This is a man-made political problem.”
San Francisco Swamped With Crime And Empty Store Fronts
In addition to the rampant drug use, homelessness, and crime, the city has lost thousands to remote work after the pandemic, which has decimated vast areas of its commercial neighborhoods.
Office vacancies in San Francisco reached a record high of 31 percent in May, enough space for 92,000 workers, according to the Daily Mail.
The loss of office workers is expected to contribute to a budget shortfall of $1.3 billion in five years, while a decline in property tax revenue alone may cost nearly $200 million per year, according to the city’s chief accountant.
Sales tax revenue for South of Market, or SoMA, where the stores were located, has seen a 25 percent decline from the first quarter of 2019.
Ms. Breed’s office announced it was working on changing laws and tax reforms, that would bring more businesses to the area.
IKEA’s opening of a new location at 945 Market Street, on Aug. 23, was touted as a sign by Ms. Breed that things were not too bad, calling IKEA’s move “a game changer.”
Mr. Dorsey said that the city will ”have some serious issues to work on.”
He added that “San Francisco has always had ups and downs, but I’m going to tell you we always come back. And I’m not going to lose my optimism about my district or my city.”
Last week, city authorities announ
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