Though retail chains fleeing woke cities in solidly blue states like California for safer areas is nothing new, the announcements just keep on coming and at an especially inconvenient times for Democrats as the 2024 election campaign season heats up.
The latest entrant into the “let’s get the hell outta Dodge” movement is Nordstrom department store, which confirmed Tuesday that they were shuttering two San Francisco locations due to “the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market” and how they have “changed dramatically” in recent years:
The retailer confirmed the closures on Tuesday. In an email to employees, the company’s chief stores officer wrote 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.”
The two planned closures represent about 357,500 square feet of retail space, according to the San Francisco Business Times, which first reported Nordstrom’s plans. The Westfield mall Nordstrom and the Nordstrom Rack will close at the end of August and on July 1, respectively.
Providing a helpful translation for the Nordstrom announcement was Westfield Mall’s owner :
A spokesperson for the Westfield mall and its owner, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, told me in a statement on Tuesday that the planned Nordstrom closure “underscores the deteriorating situation in downtown San Francisco.”
The spokesperson said the mall owner “has actively engaged with city leaders for many years to express our serious concerns, which are shared by our customers and retailers.”
“We have urged the city to find solutions to the key issues and lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity,” the spokesperson said. “The current environment is not sustainable for the community, or businesses, and we are hopeful the city will implement the changes that are so urgently needed.”
The San Francisco Business Times also reported other “imminent” store closures coming for San Francisco, including the 33rd Street Office Depot location and 880 Market Street Anthropologie store.
On those closings, SFist quoted a former Union Square manager as telling it like it is:
Richard Wallace, a former manager at a high-end store in Union Square, commented to the California Globe about Anthropologie’s closure, citing likely reasons that include street crime, low foot traffic, and rising retail rents.
“San Francisco is so concerned about stores leaving. Then protect them better,” Wallace says.
“Stop having people be afraid to shop downtown or in other places. Give people ease-of-mind for nothing bad to happen. And for stores, curb these crazy rent prices. Deter theft. Stop these crime waves that are quickly becoming a new holiday tradition. It’s been getting ridiculous.”
The man has a point. Like several of them. Think SF “leaders” will listen, though? Don’t count on it. Because as we’ve seen before, the Democrats who run these cities into the ground are in complete denial about the havoc their soft-on-crime policies are wreaking, and unfortunately it is innocent citizens and small and big business owners alike who end up paying the price – some of them with their lives.
Flashback: Nancy Pelosi Says She Has No Idea Why Violent Crime Has Spiked and I Have Thoughts