Downtown SF exodus: Inside one of the last big stores in retail hub

Sep 23, 2023

Urban Outfitters, which carries an eclectic mixture of clothing, accessories and home goods directed at youthful shoppers, is one of very few longtime retailers remaining on the section of Powell Street near the cable-car turnaround. Customers expressed shock at the state of the area.

Growing up in Alamo, Maria Carpenter would visit San Francisco for shopping trips, a ritual she maintains now that she's a mom living in Sebastopol. On Wednesday, she brought her 14-year-old daughter and a friend to Urban Outfitters on Powell Street, walking through streets pockmarked with vacant storefronts.

"I’m definitely shocked by how many stores are closed and am less likely to come here for shopping," she said of the neighborhood.

She was also concerned about Urban Outfitters.

"I was here a couple of months ago and this whole area was completely stocked with home goods, and now there is almost nothing," Carpenter said, pointing at shelves with a sparse selection of rugs, bath mats and milk crates.

Urban Outfitters, a "lifestyle retailer" that carries an eclectic mixture of clothing, accessories and home goods aimed at youthful shoppers, is among very few long-time retailers remaining on the section of Powell Street near the cable-car turnaround. All around it, vacant storefronts bear the names of hopeful real estate brokers seeking new tenants.

That tourist-laden area is so crucial to the city that Mayor London Breed has targeted the three-block stretch of Powell from Market Street to Geary Street for a $6 million facelift.

"This stretch of Powell Street should be a destination filled with activity, shopping, and dining," Breed said in a statement announcing the plan to widen sidewalks and replace aging metallic grates and benches — and, most crucially, lure new tenants for the numerous vacancies.

Urban Outfitters’ only neighbor on its side of Powell Street, the Gap, shut down its flagship store in 2020, a victim of the pandemic. Next, Gap will shutter its huge Old Navy store across Market Street on July 1. The closures of fast-fashion stores H&M and Uniqlo add to Powell Street's numerous vacancies. Around the corner on Market Street, Anthropologie — owned by Urban Outfitters — shut down last month.

The revitalization plan doesn't directly address urban woes such as crime and homelessness, however, and it was those issues, along with the vacancies, that most Urban Outfitters shoppers commented on.

Urban Outfitters carries its own scar of some of those issues: One huge floor-to-ceiling glass window is boarded up on its Ellis Street side. A security guard said it was shattered by a tossed rock several weeks ago and didn't know when it might be replaced.

A floor-to-ceiling glass window is boarded up on the Ellis Street side of Urban Outfitters. A security guard said it was shattered by a tossed rock.

The store draws a steady stream of tourists and local shoppers throughout the day.

Bart De Visscher, visiting from Belgium, had wanted to take photos of Union Square in Bloom, a promotional event in which local businesses bedecked themselves with flower displays.

"I could not take the nicest shot because it had a person laying flat on the ground," he said.

He’d heard news reports about crime and vacancies in San Francisco. "I thought it was an exaggeration but it is not," he said. "Every block has (places) with someone sleeping."

High school seniors Hannah Campbell and Janae Schwan of Santa Rosa came to the Giants game on a school trip and left early to do some shopping. Although both are used to visiting San Francisco, they said they felt less safe this time.

"The environment isn't what we were used to," Campbell said. "It feels sketchy."

The two noticed that Urban Outfitters’ sales section was overflowing with discounted merchandise. Aside from the home-goods area, the three-story location appears well stocked.

"To my surprise, why so many empty places?" said Bojan Tadec, a visual merchandising specialist for fast-fashion chain Zara who was visiting from Berlin with a friend. "Is this street going to be dead?"

The environment at Urban Outfitters, which sells clothing and accessories, isn't what it used to be, shoppers say. Some are dismayed at the lack of home goods in the store.

Philadelphia-based Urban Outfitters, which has more than 600 stores in the U.S., Europe and Canada, declined to comment on the Powell Street location and its plans in San Francisco. The company instructed its store manager that neither he nor any staff members could speak to a reporter.

The company impressed Wall Street with an earnings report for the fiscal fourth quarter ended Jan. 31 that showed profits growing. Sales at its Anthropologie and Free People brands rose by double digits and sales at its apparel subscription service Nuuly more than doubled.

However, sales fell 13% at the namesake Urban Outfitter stores. CEO Richard Hayne told investors the stores had a "difficult holiday season" and continue to face challenges, including the economy limiting customer spending and supply-chain issues.

The company told analysts it plans to close about 16 stores in the coming year, while opening 35 new ones. It didn't specify which of its brands or cities are targeted for closures.

At the closed-down Gap, a huge photo in one window shows the Market and Powell intersection jam-packed with hundreds of tourists waiting for the cable cars and many more people crowding the nearby sidewalks. The contrast with the current reality was stark Wednesday — admittedly not the busy summer season — when just a few dozen people were in line.

"It's nuts," said Steven Young, a software engineer who has lived in the Mission District since the 1990s, describing the atmosphere on Powell Street.

"I don't recognize this at all. I can't even describe how sparse the streets are," he said, gesturing at a few pedestrians heading toward Union Square. "Maybe you’d see this at dawn (before the pandemic). It's very, very different."

Reach Carolyn Said: [email protected]; Twitter: @csaid