Due to the ‘dynamics’ of the downtown market and the ongoing wave of blatant retail crimes in the area, Nordstrom Store will be closing both of its downtown San Francisco stores in the upcoming months.
Changing Market Dynamics
Chief Stores Officer Jamie Nordstrom informed the staff in a memo that the business will not be renewing the leases for its Market Street Rack store across the street and its Nordstrom stores in the San Francisco Centre.
The statement read, “We’ve spent more than 35 years serving customers in downtown San Francisco, forming bonds with them, and making investments in the neighborhood.” But as many of you are aware, over the past few years, the downtown San Francisco market’s dynamics have changed significantly, which has an impact on the number of people who visit our stores on foot.
The Market Street Rack will cease operations on July 1 and the San Francisco Centre outlet will go down at the end of August. The closures “underscores the deteriorating situation in Downtown San Francisco,” according to the Westfield mall, which houses the downtown Nordstrom and is owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, the San Francisco Standard said.
Nordstrom closing downtown San Francisco Nordstrom stores
New Stores in Plan
A mall spokeswoman claimed that “a growing number of retailers and businesses are leaving the area due to the unsafe conditions for customers, retailers, and employees, coupled with the fact that these serious issues are impeding the area’s ability to recover economically.”
Five additional Rack Nordstrom Stores, including one close to the Bay Area, will open in California, according to a recent announcement by Nordstrom. San Francisco/Oakland was listed as the second-most severely affected metropolitan area by theft in 2020 and 2021 by the National Retail Federation’s 2022 retail security study, trailing only Los Angeles. Houston came in fourth, while New York City came in third.