Posted on 07/22/2024 12:06:28 PM PDT by Vendome
Amid Friday afternoon’s heat, the five posh floors of Saks Fifth Avenue in San Francisco’s Union Square offered a cool elegance that belied the jarring news from the day before: the store is transitioning to an appointment-only model and laying off staff.
What will it feel like to go on pre-arranged shopping trips inside a sprawling department store? That is an open question for customers and staffers. As part of the transition slated for Aug. 28, the store will lay off an unspecified number of employees, according to the Chronicle, which first reported the changes.
The news comes at a time when Union Square has suffered from declining foot traffic and a surge of retail vacancies. Big-box retailers have struggled in San Francisco and around the country, prompting the city to proffer pop-up shops and free parking to add excitement and liveliness downtown.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfstandard.com ...
Everywhere I wanted to go in are by appointment only now.
2 years I needed an ink refill for one of my Cartier pens.
Had it in my hand and wanted a manager to just get one, charge me and they could spend time as a tour guide with people who probably aren't going to buy.
Was told appointment only.
I was furious and called their HQ.
I got no where.
Found a fellow owns a high end writing instrument store and he had the refill I needed.
I'm done with these retail places.
Now, I only buy online
I guess in some areas, it’s either this or close altogether.
How long before this applies to Walmart?
They are just running out the clock on their lease. When they get close enough to the end, they will close.
Trying to stay open, but what’s to stop someone from making an appointment and showing up with a posse to loot the place?
White People Problems, lol, just kidding.
Seriously though, how is the crime and squalor that has infected Union Square not get raised here? What’s the use of free parking if your car is pretty much guaranteed to be broken into.
Why blame the retailer? They are being overrun by barbarians if their stores are open. With the blessings of a criminal state.
Isn’t shopping for high end women an emotional experience, an outing of immersion and stimuli that is triggered by the mood for that day?
Making an appointment for the grocery store to pick up your grocery list is one thing, but isn’t the shopping for scarves and purses, outfits and accessories an indulgence experience for women that that doesn’t fit as pleasantly into scheduled in advance appointments, for instance the day they feel bloated?
exactly! first world problems X10.
I don’t blame them, even though similar situations and closings here (less high-end) have complicated my life. I’ve had to go online/delivery for lots of necessary things because there are no more drugstores nearby.
Check result of ban the police insane.
It may be somewhat stereotypical but yes, in my experience, some women like to “shop” often without anything in particular in mind. Or maybe one thing they need, but enjoy browsing around and making an afternoon out of it.
Not all women of course. And not all women can afford to spend an afternoon browsing and impulse buying. But stores like Marshalls and TJMaxx are successful because they follow what they call a “treasure hunt” model. New stuff comes in all the time and it gets tucked away somewhere; and women spend considerable time going through the aisles looking at what’s new.
There probably is a market for “appointment only” stores. Sounds like it comes right out of the 1950’s; or for very upscale stores. But it’s not what one thinks of as Department Store which has a lot of square footage of inventory and it needs to turn.
Sorry; desserts...I guess we wouldn’t have found much in deserts...
“”””There probably is a market for “appointment only” stores.””””
Perhaps for a small specialty store where the selection is for a particular designer or brand of purse or of a small selection of the very expensive and desired fashion items.
Lol, I’m getting a little out of my area, but I’m giving it the full effort.
I wish. It might thin out all the south of the border mamasitas and the broods of 6 or 7 kids that clog the aisles. Or the rude Indians that will get in your way and park in front of what you are trying to get to to have a conversation. I refuse to go to the WM Neighborhood market 3 blocks from my house because it is a microcosm for the “t*rd world” I drive 4 miles to the one in the nicer area to get away from that carp. Heck yes Id make an appointment. even if it was just limited access.
My wife is a Cartier shopper. She looks like a Cartier shopper.
They are appointment only, but always open the door for her.
Magically, an appointment opens up when she arrives in her Range Rover.
Note, not saying that you don’t look like an MB shopper. But smart stores know this is basically a scam just done to keep out “youths”. MB needs to get with the program.
Well I went to Wal Mart for the first time in 6 months and found that ordinary men’s underwear and socks are locked up behind a glass wall and you have to get someone to open it to buy them.
I ordered some from Amazon instead.
It was for this pen and I was probably wearing an Omega that day
https://www.ebay.com/itm/375522252285?itmmeta=01J3E2K7JS1M1397ADEN3XEG0H&hash=item576eded5fd:g:MmAAAOSwLxdmiAlW&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAAwN%2FUmljNDhWcmZ1FfAQyFDdkefH8RpL6EW6sHjRNi8vbrEjdV1ohv1OYrbFUSoCVAJd83X2jd8l9QsM6vINdptARhK8Mg3jP9f0oKr3ZJRcmJrylAzVe7gaeUTRuBsZDMpzGMFdW4kWU%2F9IoPM2VEO2LAEidNBsiPXdO8aPxlfOH7Ci6%2Fpbbj9mtP6z2aQJQta3uS5yzxGqiN5XltxfAB8P0yQdI0oYDap%2FXw7e6xxMgYd5vpdggIwyuapBhbJWFgQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7r5zMKbZA
I will say the Cartier at Stanford is more accommodating
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