A flagship retailer in downtown San Francisco has announced its exit. Nordstrom closed its five-story, 312,000-square-foot store for the last time on Sunday, the latest retailer to succumb to rising crime and falling foot traffic.
The news came as no surprise. Nordstrom announced plans to close the once-vibrant store in May.
“The dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past few years, impacting our store traffic and our ability to operate successfully,” Chief Store Officer Jamie Nordstrom wrote to employees at the time.
While Nordstrom was once one of downtown San Francisco’s shopping kings, its final days were anything but rosy. The display is empty and the area is blocked
The company also closed Nordstrom’s Market Street Rack last month, away from downtown.
A growing number of Nordstrom retailers are ditching the area. Office Depot, Old Navy, Saks Off Fifth Avenue and Anthropologie have closed their downtown stores, and nearby Whole Foods has also left the area due to safety concerns.
Still, Nordstrom’s departure will have additional knock-on effects. Westfield Shopping Centre, where the closed store is located, announced it would return the property to lenders. The mall has been a fixture of Market Street for over 20 years. Westfield said the mall had $298 million in sales last year, compared with $455 million in 2019 when announcing the decision. During the same period, foot traffic in shopping centers fell by 42%.
“More retailers and businesses are leaving the area due to the unsafe environment for customers, retailers and employees, and the fact that these major issues are holding back the area’s economic recovery,” the mall’s owner said at the time. Nordstrom announced it was closing.
San Francisco has been in what some are calling a “doomsday spiral,” with office buildings and businesses remaining empty in the post-pandemic environment. Crime has reached the point where some inner-city drugstores are locking up shampoo, toothpaste and other toiletries. Armed robbers recently raided a Gucci store in broad daylight.
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