Old Navy Closing San Francisco Flagship Store

[J-Man]

Add Old Navy to the list of retailers that are closing their downtown San Francisco locations.

[storewanderer]

During COVID I kept thinking this store closed right before the COVID thing started. Then I saw it was actually still open.

This is a big loss for the Old Navy brand and yet another loss for San Francisco. Given Gap's behavior in recent years this isn't really surprising. Gap has already closed most of its stores in San Francisco. Given that Gap is headquartered there in San Francisco they clearly know more about what is happening in that city than various outsiders do and they are making these decisions accordingly.

Gap has also basically stated they are not focusing on these big flagship stores anymore and was saying that long before COVID (obviously the stores are too big to make money) also.

So I could see this closure as being less about San Francisco and more about Gap. But I'm going to guess that they kept this open so much longer than other locations in San Francisco/other flagships elsewhere that they really did intend for this location to stay open but with the lease being up and the situation in San Francisco getting worse by the day, they decided to just let this one go too.

This store like that men's Macy's (when it was still its own building) was one of my favorite stores to go to in Union Square. Selection was infinitely better than other locations due to the larger store size and I always found items I wanted. Too bad.

[Alpha8472]

The Old Navy stores in the suburbs of San Francisco seem to be doing good business. There are 2 stores in Concord, California practically a few hundred feet away from each other. They are in separate strip malls, but you can walk from one store to another.

The problem with San Francisco was shoplifters and the lack of response from the local police. Concord has very responsive police. I remember them having armed police with rifles protecting the mall back during 2020. The shoplifters were looting shopping centers and when they got to Sunvalley Mall the looters all fled due to the armed police presence.

[storewanderer]

Stores like the Old Navy flagship definitely rely on foot traffic. I can see how with the foot traffic issues that seem to be occurring that they cannot get the sales they need for such a large amount of square footage.

The Old Navy was still basically wide open. It always had security at the door, even 10-15 years ago. Despite the location being what seems like a problem location I don't think it was having theft problems recently. It did not appear to be a store that was having a shoplifting problem. I'm not sure their product is worth taking, quality isn't the best. I think it also had an open restroom, but that may have been before COVID (as in literally just walk in, no key etc.).

[Alpha8472]

There were reports from employees of high levels of shoplifting at the store.

There are news articles about the Target in San Francisco being robbed as often as every 10 minutes.

The Burlington stores in the Bay Area have locked their restrooms and are no longer open for public use. Fitting rooms at Burlington are also closed.

[storewanderer]

There were reports from employees of high levels of shoplifting at the store.

There are news articles about the Target in San Francisco being robbed as often as every 10 minutes.

The Burlington stores in the Bay Area have locked their restrooms and are no longer open for public use. Fitting rooms at Burlington are also closed.

That is unfortunate if shoplifting was also the blame for this closure but I really think this one is a foot traffic issue firstly.

Burlington locked restrooms a number of years ago chainwide and you had to ring a doorbell to use the restroom which rang into security and they were to look at you on the camera and make sure you weren't carrying anything before unlocking the restroom door remotely. Many of these Burlington were busy stores with people going in/out of the restrooms pretty steadily so enforcement of this policy was lackluster at best. Employees were also required to follow this policy (and supposedly if they "walked into the restroom as someone else was walking out" and security saw it on the camera they were disciplined for not following restroom entry protocol). This was a very bad policy for so many reasons I could write a short book and at least in my area everything has been unlocked again for quite some time and the previous remote-activated door unlocking equipment was disassembled.

I can imagine security is on the prowl of a thief with a pile of clothing about to run out the door, no match for the 18 year old kid with a tape measurer around their neck standing at the door pretending to be some kind of a theft deterrent, but because it is a busy day at the restroom they are having to constantly screw around with that camera and lose track of the thief.

[storewanderer]

It appears Gap at large is doing major layoffs in San Francisco.

They filed notices for WARN layoffs in April 2023 for the following addresses;

2 Folsom Street, 569 employees (corporate office)
1 Harrison Street, 79 employees (corporate office with Gap Store, Gap owns building and put it up for sale 1/2023)
1596 Howard Street, 15 employees (some kind of office)