San Francisco has suffered another blow as one of downtown’s most upmarket department stores has banned window-shoppers from entering.
Saks Fifth Avenue in Union Square has decided to change its customer experience by moving to “appointment-only” service this summer, according to Crown 4.
Locals will need to make appointments in advance at the store located at 384 Post Street beginning August 28.
Customers can no longer walk in and look at luxury items, according to a company spokesman.
This comes at a time when parts of San Francisco have become known for their squalor and squalor, so much so that local businesses are unable to hire staff and residents have felt forced to flee.
San Francisco has suffered another blow as Saks Fifth Avenue, one of downtown’s most luxurious department stores, bans window-shopping.
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The high-end luxury apparel company said it is looking for “innovative ways to optimize (its) in-store experience to meet the changing expectations of luxury consumers.”
It follows Saks Fifth Avenue stores in Palo Alto and Napa, which have already become appointment-only stores in downtown San Francisco.
The layoffs are expected to affect employees at Saks Fifth Avenue in Union Square, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
But the number of workers who will be affected is unknown.
The Saks Fifth Avenue Union Square store offers complimentary in-store personal styling, grooming and beauty services.
Clients are encouraged to book appointments on their website.
“We look forward to serving our San Francisco customers with this new experience,” a company spokesperson said.
The Union Square store has decided to change its customer experience and move to appointment-only operations this summer, according to KRON4.
A map reveals the major companies that have left, or announced they will leave, San Francisco in recent months. Retailers like Whole Foods, Anthropologie, Old Navy, AmazonGo, Saks Off Fifth and now American Eagle are among those participating in the mass exodus.
Crime and high rates of homelessness persist in the famously progressive metropolis, especially in the surrounding downtown area and the nearby Mission District.
In April, Mayor London N. Breed announced new voter-approved measures to improve public safety, particularly in the city’s hardest-hit districts.
The rise in homeless numbers, now around 8,300 people, has brought with it a myriad of other associated problems that litter the sidewalks with illegal drug dealers, fentanyl users and generally violent and intimidating behavior near tent encampments.
The prime real estate once housed stores such as Uniqlo, H&M, Rasputin Records and Lush, but all have disappeared into a city centre plagued by crime, drugs and homelessness.
The retail exodus is reflected on nearby streets: 22 of 33 stores now sit vacant in a three-block section of Powell Street from Market Street to Union Square, according to an SF Chronicle survey.
In December 2022, a federal magistrate judge blocked the city of San Francisco from evicting homeless people from tenting, though it did not prohibit it from clearing the encampments.
The judge ordered city officials to stop evicting homeless people from public campsites unless they have been offered adequate shelter indoors.
But San Francisco Mayor London Breed has revealed the city is willing to take a “very aggressive” approach to removing the encampments from the streets that have plagued the Bay Area city for the past four years.
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