In the next months, Nordstrom will close both of its stores in downtown San Francisco, citing the “dynamics” of the downtown market as the reason for the closures. This comes as the region continues to suffer a wave of retail thefts committed by bold burglars.
Chief Stores Officer Jamie Nordstrom announced to the business’s employees in a memo that the company will not be renewing its lease for the San Francisco Centre Nordstrom store or the Market Street Rack shop that is directly across the street from it.
According to the statement, “We have spent over 35 years serving customers in downtown San Francisco, building relationships with them, and investing in the local community.” “However, as many of you are aware, the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed drastically over the past several years. This has had an effect on the customer foot traffic that comes to our stores and on our ability to run a business that is profitable.”
Retail giant says it won’t renew leases for 2 outlets, citing customer foot traffic.
The Market Street Rack will be closing its doors forever on July 1st, while the San Francisco Centre branch will stop operating at the end of the month of August.
According to the San Francisco Standard, the Westfield mall, in which the downtown Nordstrom is located, and its owner, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, have stated that the closures “underscore the deteriorating situation in Downtown San Francisco.”
According to a spokeswoman for the shopping center, “a growing number of retailers and businesses are leaving the area due to the unsafe conditions for customers, retailers, and employees.” This is paired with the reality that these serious difficulties are preventing the area from seeing an economic comeback.
“For many years, [Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield] has been actively involved with the leaders of the city to communicate our grave concerns, which are shared by both our consumers and the retailers that we work with. In the statement, it was underlined that “we have strongly encouraged the city to find solutions to the key issues and lack of enforcement again.”
Recently, Nordstrom made an announcement on the development of five new Rack stores in the state of California, one of which will be located near the Bay Area.
According to a poll conducted by the National Retail Federation in 2022, the metropolitan area that includes San Francisco and Oakland was identified as the second-most hard-hit by theft in the years 2020 and 2021, behind only Los Angeles. New York City came in third, and Houston finished in fourth place.