Recently, the Democratic San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin announced the impending closure of the city’s Macy’s department store. According to reports, Macy’s will be shutting down approximately 150 locations, including the downtown San Francisco store in Union Square, amid an effort to downsize the business.
“I was devastated by this morning’s phone call from Macy’s corporate leadership confirming their national plan to downsize by 150 locations, including the Union Square location, and invest in a small-format model.” said Peskin.
However, the Democrat remained hopeful about the city’s attempt to revive the downtown area. Noting “potential opportunity” for the soon-to-be vacant department store, Peskin suggested options such as “mixed-use space” instead of it being purely commercial.
“Macy’s was one of the last holdouts against the national trend of retail closures and consolidations, but as with every seeming blow to our downtown recovery, I see a potential opportunity. This site is an opportunity development site, with potential for mixed-use, food & beverage and residential on the upper floors, even before the pandemic. Macy’s has confirmed that the building will remain open until the end of the year, and it will be put up for sale. Between now and then, we have a mandate to continue our collaborative work with the Union Square Alliance to invest in the neighborhood,” he said. “Every devastating phone call has an opportunity somewhere and every challenge has a flip side – with the right political will and public-private collaboration. Let’s get to work.”
Social media users on X torched Peskin following his public statement on Macy’s shutting down. Many criticized the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for having misaligned priorities while the city continues to lose businesses.
“I cannot help but wonder if the @sfbos had not been focused on making sure homes were not built larger than 2,000 sq ft, and solving the middle east peace crisis if maybe we would not be in the situation we are in now,” one person commented.
“It seems like relying on political will to do anything turns out worse. Macy’s would still be here if we had enough cops and a justice system that punishes theft. Union Square has been decimated, and this is the legacy you are leaving. Channel that political will with a drink,” another person said while calling out a past alcohol-related controversy of Peksin’s.
The closure of the Union Square location will have an undeniable impact on the surrounding community, as the store served as a prominent source of consumer activity and employment. An estimated 400 people will lose their jobs at the store upon closing.
According to the testimony of numerous San Francisco Macy’s employees, they believe rampant retail theft is the ultimate cause of the store’s upcoming closure. “I’m not in charge of making the estimates of how much we lose in a day, but last year we were told the losses were in the millions,” one employee said, according to the outlet, claiming that drug users and teens are the culprits for the vast majority of the shoplifting activity.
San Francisco’s decline has not gone unnoticed. Charles Barkley, slamming it as being dangerous and full of “homeless crooks,” rather than being the beautiful, pleasant city of days past. Watch Barkley sound off on San Francisco here:
Featured image credit: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2017_Macy%27s_on_Union_Square_San_Francisco.jpg
"*" indicates required fields