Posted on 01/02/2024 9:39:03 AM PST by Vendome
One of San Francisco's last remaining toy stores may have to close its doors if business doesn't pick up soon.
The beloved Jeffrey's Toys in Union Square, which has been family-owned and operated since 1938, has been hit with hard times.
"We all know, the pandemic has been hard on people, the uptick in crime. I look around me right now and see so many buildings that are closed and shuttered. Why are we here? We love San Francisco, we love toys, and we're the type of family that doesn't give up," said co-owner Matthew Luhn.
Luhn says this week will determine if the store survives after Christmas.
(Excerpt) Read more at abc7news.com ...
Weird.
So, I asked friends where they are shopping and they said "Online. The in person experience is outdated"
It didn’t have to be outdated but it is because of unpunished retail theft, danger to retail employees, danger to shoppers from gangs at malls and retail stores.
There is also a new danger to people from online shopping due to hackers, porch pirates, and attacks on delivery drivers and residences.
Everything is chaos now.
(toy store)
I’ll bet they could tell a Story of old days long, long ago.
Sorta a Toy St....
I am going to look, into getting one.
It’s sad to see what our country is turning into.
This is what we get for coddling criminals.
They tired of shoveling human feces from in front of the entrance perhaps?
If you wasn’t a pandemic. It was a lockdown.
100% taking pleasure in the misery of others. Sorry.
LOL, Happy New Year, Bikkuri!
Made me think of a time when my wife and I were in a notorious homosexual enclave in the NorthEast to have dinner, and were killing some time before dinner going into stores.
We were inside of one store, and at the register there was a small woven basket of stainless steel rings, and I had picked one up and was casually turning it over in my hand as my wife and I waited to be rung up. As we talked, I was idly wondering what the deal with these steel rings were. “Why up near the cash register? I would expect to see candy or something up here.”
My wife reached over, and gently removed the steel ring from my hand, put it back in the basket, and said calmly “Don’t play with that.”
LOL! She told me when we got outside what THAT thing was! Eeeeewww.
I had stopped going into malls and stores years ago. On the internet, you can get so much more information in terms of descriptions, reviews, etc., Browsing the internet for something, I figure, ‘well as long as I’m here, I’ll buy it here.’
There are a few things I’ll still go to the store for - an expensive overcoat or shoes - and the grocery. But walking around shopping centers doesn’t interest me anymore. It doesn’t help that so many stores are now just huge chains, and the merchandise from one to the other is similar and largely boring. Where I am, at least, we don’t have many of the interesting independent stores we used to have. They made ‘going shopping’ fun and interesting; but they’ve mostly taken to the Internet.
No, it’s not some kind of kink shop. Jeffrey’s is a legit toy store (i.e., selling dolls, boardgames, model airplanes, etc). I bought Star Wars action figures from them c. 1978. It’s sad but unsurprising that they’re having trouble.
When I was a kid, S.F. had a lot of toy stores, e.g., King Norman’s, Jeffrey’s, FAO Schwarz, to name just a few. They’re all gone now. Why? Several factors: (1) S.F. has the lowest percentage of of children of any big city in America; (2) The toy business is tough everywhere, as mass merchandisers like Targets & Wal-Marts have taken over the market from specialty toy stores; (3) online shopping. Jeffrey’s is in a particularly rough spot, as its location on the border of the financial district likely gets minimal foot traffic from the tourists who are more lucrative potential toy customers compared to area’s vestigial contingent of officer workers.
That brings back some memories.
I think a lot of these people are running on a societal Sunken Cost fallacy, and probably don’t even know it.
San Francisco is well on the way to becoming a total retail desert.
I wonder if this is related to the fact that Newsome mandated a special section be delegated for confused children... ie an equal section for trans children?
Yes I have heard that San Francisco has relatively few school-age children. Which certainly would affect the total customer base for a toy store.
I think I heard a few years ago, San Francisco wanted to try to increase the number of families with children , and wanted to enact policies to achieve that.
Among other obstacles are the fact that within the city of San Francisco , real estate is so expensive. Ordinary single family homes can easily be well over a million dollars within the city of San Francisco.
They could always sell toy shovels to shovel up human feces and put it into buckets.
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