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After more than three decades of welcoming customers in downtown San Francisco, Nordstrom's flagship store in the city's heart shut its doors for good on Sunday.
Pictures taken just days before the high-end store's closure show stacks of ghostly mannequins standing naked in an otherwise empty room, while shoes, furniture, and clothes are cordoned off around the shop. In the photos, only a handful of customers walk around the eerily empty sections of the store.
The closure was first announced in May when the company said it was shutting down both of its stores in the downtown area—located next to each other on Market Street—because of declining sales and the city's changing market over the past few years.
Jamie Nordstrom, the company's chief stores officer, said that "the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past several years, impacting customer foot traffic to our stores and our ability to operate successfully."
But many have suggested that the store might have decided to close its doors because of the rise in crime in downtown San Francisco, with an employee telling ABC7 that the closure is "definitely partially due to the crime in the area." The anonymous employee added that COVID-19 also played a significant role in the decline of the store.
Newsweek has reached out to Nordstrom via email for comment.
Several companies have been shutting their stores in downtown San Francisco in recent years, with many mentioning the rise in crime—specifically robberies—in the area as one of the reasons behind their closures.
In 2021, Target announced reduced night hours in some of its San Francisco stores because of the city's rise in shoplifting and thefts. Later in the same year, Walgreens reported the closures of five of its outlets in the city because of a rise in "organized retail crime."
In May, online news outlet SFGATE reported that T-Mobile had closed its flagship store in San Francisco's Union Square the month before. In April, Whole Foods shut its downtown location after just a year of business, with bosses saying they were unable to "ensure the safety" of their staff in the city.
Out of 203 retailers present in the city's Union Square district as of 2019, over 90 have closed since the beginning of the pandemic, as reported by The Daily Mail.
The closure of the Nordstrom stores represents the end of an era for the City by the Bay, but also an incredible real-estate opportunity for whatever business or corporation takes the store's place.
According to the latest data mentioned by ABC7, sales tax revenue for South of Market, where the Nordstrom store was located, has surged by 25 percent from the first quarter of 2019 to 2023.
The city said that they have plans for the mall, including bringing pop-up stores into the space and potentially turning it into a stadium.
"We are hoping that in the short term, we can bring those vendors down to ground floor, where they have visibility and access to the public and that we keep visitation to that mall," said Sarah Dennis Phillips, the city's executive director of the office of economic and workforce development.
"Over the long term, we [will] work to build those exciting businesses and some exciting new concepts for what may happen there."
The city's Mayor, London Breed, said they were considering whether it would be feasible to build a soccer stadium in the area.
"It's not just a plan for a soccer stadium. It's showing people what is possible," she said. "We are starting to think about what is downtown in light of the challenges around the retail. So, not only could there be a soccer stadium that could be transformative. Meaning soccer matches, FIFA, and a soccer tournament, but concerts."
About the writer
Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property ... Read more