The Old Navy on Market Street near Union Square in downtown San Francisco is closing, joining a retail exodus from the city that is driven by crime, a changing retail market, and the loss of foot traffic in the area.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday:
Gap is closing yet another San Francisco store: the Old Navy on Market Street.
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Downtown San Francisco has been the victim of weaker foot traffic due to remote work and lower tourism during the pandemic, along with safety concerns and customers switching to online shopping.
The stretch of Market Street near Union Square has been hard-hit by retail closures: Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack are exiting, along with Saks Off Fifth. A Walgreens next to Old Navy was the site of a fatal shooting, and relatives of the victim, Banko Brown, sued the company and its security firm.
As Breitbart News has reported, there were two other major closures announced last week: Williams-Sonoma left its downtown San Francisco location; and Banana Republic also announced that it is leaving the area, though it is keeping another store open in the city.
Some liberal pundits have tried to deny that retailers are leaving the city because of crime, blaming the shift to online shopping. But few other cities have seen the dramatic change that San Francisco is witnessing.
One other city that has had similar experiences is Los Angeles, where several Starbucks locations have closed due to crime, and a location in Studio City recently announced that it is removing seating due to “safety concerns,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.