Many on Wednesday were mourning the sudden loss of 45-year-old Mission bargain shopping mainstay Thrift Town, whose owners initially announced a Friday closing date and then revised that to be effective immediately. We now learn via a note the owners posted to the door and photographed by Capp Street Crap, that the reason for the closure was not a rent increase, as most would expect. The owners cite declining sales at this location combined with rising costs, and they say that even a rent decrease from the landlord could not help keep the place open.

"The retail landscape is changing drastically and despite our exhaustive efforts to meet the ongoing challenges of increased costs and declining sales, we are unable to generate the sales necessary to sustain our long-standing business in San Francisco," the owners, the Norquist Salvage Corporation, write. "We have fought hard to save our beautiful San Francisco store because we deeply believe in our people, our community, and our mission."

They celebrate having kept "millions of pounds of usable items out of local landfills and helping to raise over 23 million dollars of much-needed funding for our local nonprofit partners."

Thrift Town's two other Bay Area locations, in El Sobrante and San Leandro, will both remain open and they say "Thrift Town’s San Francisco employees will be encouraged to apply for positions in one of our other locations should that option suit their circumstances." The company also has three locations in the Sacramento area.

Calling the building "a fixture" in the neighborhood that was formerly Redlick Furniture, Mission Mission does not speculate about what other tenant might want to take over the sizable space.

Earlier: Mission Street's Thrift Town Is Closed For Good