Posted on 07/27/2024 11:13:38 AM PDT by george76
San Francisco has suffered another blow as one of the most luxurious department stores downtown is banning window shoppers.
Saks Fifth Avenue in Union Square has decided to change its customer experience by moving to 'appointment-only' this summer...
Locals will have to pre-book appointments ...
Customers can no longer walk in and browse the luxury items...
It comes as areas in San Francisco have become known for their squalor and misery - so much so that local businesses are unable to recruit staff and residents have felt forced to flee.
...
It follows Saks Fifth Avenue stores in Palo Alto and Napa which have already become appointment-only stores in downtown San Francisco.
Layoffs are expected to impact Saks Fifth Avenue employees in Union Square,
...
The rise in the number of homeless, now about 8,300 people, has brought with it a myriad of other associated problems filling the sidewalks with illegal drug dealers, fentanyl users and all round violent and intimidating behavior close to the tent encampments.
Prime real estate was once home to outlets including Uniqlo, H&M, Rasputin Records, and Lush, but all have disappeared in a city center plagued by crime, drugs and homelessness.
The retail exodus is mirrored in nearby streets with 22 out of 33 stores now vacant in a three-block section of Powell Street from Market Street to Union Square
...
December 2022, a federal magistrate judge prevented the city of San Francisco from clearing homeless tents
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
With that business model, it is only a matter of time before they close.
Y’all deserve what you voted for.
It is all your fault.
Hello, AI chatbot on a website. Saks will be just another seller on Amazon.
> With that business model, it is only a matter of time before they close. <
I can see why Saks did that, but yes you’re right.
I knew a guy who operated an old-time general store in a bad area. To reduce shoplifting, he decided to make customers wait just inside the door. You’d come in, then hand a clerk your order. You paid when your order was handed to you.
I went in there just once after the new policy was put in place. I wanted a screw set, but was not allowed to go back and compare items. Too bad. Bye.
The store closed about four months later. It’s still vacant, and probably always will be.
Maybe time to bring back a Service Merchandise model, IIRC the name.
I shop there once or twice a year but, the appointment thing is “no go” for me.
Been through that nonsense with Cartier. You need an appointment for anything, even a refill for a pen.
The article kinda mischaractize Saks in Palo Alto.
That is at the Rosewood Hotel and many of the high end hotels offer appointment only shopping.
Not a big deal there.
8,300 homeless....... suuuuuuure
Perhaps they’ll try something like gratuitous refreshments to those that show up for appointments just to make the experience more pleasant.
Doubt that they’ll find enough customers to pull off that kind of boutique experience.
They may, but that’s also a model the globalist elites presumably would be all for.
“With that business model, it is only a matter of time before they close.”
Indeed. You might be able to run a small boutique that way, but a freakin’ department store? Uh, no.
“Union Square”
A Kommie Harass Calif., Urban Utopia.
Elect her and get your ‘hood converted into a ‘Rat Utopia too.
Most likely ALL THEIR employees voted DEMOCRAT!
I don’t want some goober following me around.
You can have refreshments with someone like Eddie Haskel.
They are just running out the clock on their lease and minimizing shoplifting opportunities while doing so.
It isn’t just San Francisco have become known for their squalor and misery the entire states has escaping it is a near impossible task with the cost of things to move out of it.
About the only U hauls seen are on billboards.
Before supermarkets this was how groceries were sold (as in the mid-late 1800s). You go in, tell the clerk what you want, they bring it to you. The “innovation” of supermarkets was not that there was so much more, it was that (1) they consolidated specialties like butcher or bakery into one store and (2) they made you do the work for them so they could process more customers in a day. And it turned out I guess customers preferred making their own choices in one trip and getting out quick, so supermarket thrived.
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