SF Target Store Faces 10 Daily Thefts

San Francisco Retail Stores Struggle to Survive Amidst Theft and Office Vacancy Crisis

Target Store Robbed Blind

Last week, we reported on the conditions that forced Whole Foods to close its flagship store in San Francisco. Now, the SF Standard has a story about a Target store located in a mall near Union Square that is being robbed blind, not just once or twice a day, but up to 10 times a day. Employees report seeing people shoveling items into bags every 10 minutes, with lipstick and nail polish being stolen in handfuls. While the store has moved to place smaller items in locked cabinets, anything that can still be grabbed will be. Not all of the thefts are for resale, as the homeless frequently steal food and sometimes eat it in the store. Candy wrappers, soda, and even liquor bottles are often found dropped around the store. Another frequently stolen item is aluminum foil, which addicts use when smoking fentanyl.

Retail Stores Closing

It’s no wonder that many retail stores are announcing closures in the city. Recent closures include an Anthropologie store, an Office Depot, two Nordstrom stores, and a Saks Off 5th outlet. Yesterday, two more stores in the same area as the Target described above announced they were closing. San Francisco’s Union Square faced two more major losses on Monday following the pull out of T-Mobile’s flagship store at 1 Stockton Street and the closure of Williams-Sonoma at 340 Post by the end of the year. The Globe has also been told Pottery Barn on Chestnut street has also closed.

Office Vacancy Crisis

It’s not just theft that’s causing retail stores to struggle. San Francisco’s downtown area has been significantly hollowed out by people working from home a few days a week. The San Francisco Chronicle revealed yesterday that nearly a third of the city’s commercial office space is currently vacant. Downtown San Francisco is experiencing its worst office vacancy crisis on record, with 31% of space available for lease or sublease. In the heart of the city, an astounding 18.4 million square feet of real estate is available — enough space to house 92,000 employees and the equivalent of 13 Salesforce Towers. Some of the emptiest buildings can be tied to cutbacks by tech giants Salesforce and Meta, which have sought to cut costs with mass layoffs and office consolidations.

The Squeeze on Retailers

The retail stores are getting hit from both ends. On one hand, their customer base of white-collar employees has suddenly shrunk, and on the other hand, they are getting picked clean by a constant stream of homeless thieves looking to feed their drug habits. Those two forces act like a vice squeezing retailers out of the city. It’s a wonder any of them can survive, and it seems likely that several more won’t survive.