SF News SF Retail Was Hurting Before the Pandemic; Will Post-COVID SF Still Look Like a Ghost Town For Years? Union Square. Hayes Valley. The Castro. In these and other neighborhoods around the city, no amount of parklet dining and drinking can make up for the fact that, on some blocks, there are more empty storefronts than there are active ones.
SF News H&M Has Permanently Closed On Powell Street After 15 Years Swedish fast-fashion retailer H&M has become the latest casualty in the slow collapse of SF's Union Square, as the company announces that it has permanently shuttered its West Coast flagship store on Powell Street.
SF Politics Will the Pandemic Retail Apocalypse Push SF Neighborhoods to Ease Formula Retail Rules? The pandemic and recession may be reason enough to ease at least some of the restrictions that have kept chain stores of all kinds from populating empty retail spaces, now that neighborhoods like Hayes Valley are looking pretty grim.
SF News Old-School Castro Barbershop 'Male Image' Is Closing After 41 Years Male Image, the barbershop near the corner of Market and Sanchez in the Castro, is not going to reopen whenever barbershops are allowed to in SF. Longtime owner Gary Mootz reportedly plans to retire.
Arts & Entertainment Beloved San Mateo Toy Store, Talbot's Toyland, Is Closing After 66 Years Kids who grew up in the Bay Area are lamenting the loss of a seven-decade-old toy retailer in San Mateo that was a mecca in a legion of local childhoods. Citing the "retail apocalypse," the iconic Talbot's Toyland with its huge T-Rex in the entry is calling it quits.
Arts & Entertainment Thrift Town Owners Blame Lagging Sales For Closure Days earlier than expected, Mission favorite Thrift Town has closed: https://t.co/iGMmedYNlT pic.twitter.com/sXJfc2k0wg— Capp Street Crap (@cappstreetcrap) March 30, 2017 Many on Wednesday were mourning the sudden loss
