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 ...
There is no such thing as a ‘trans child’. Only very deluded parents.
LMAO!
Toy stores, hobby shops, candy stores and department stores that actually had multiple ‘departments’ are all things of the past, at least here in the U.S. Those of us old enough to remember them have fond memories, but the best we can do is tell younger folks of what has been lost.
I realize that it is common for geezers to think the world is going to hell in a bucket, but I don’t think we geezers are wrong this time.
Try again. Ordinary homes well over two million dollars. You cannot find an ordinary home under one million, at all. My parents bought a SF home for $6,000 in 1950, fully furnished. Sold it in 1973 for $23,000. It was sold several more times over a few decades, each time upgraded and the last time went on the market for $2.7M. Prices are probably going down now, but not by much. They're making less real estate, but population is getting larger with lots of homeless.
Not total, but it doesn't look good. Still lots of retail activity in pockets of SF, away from downtown or the Mission District.
However, lots of SF residents travel down the Peninsula and shop in the suburb cities. Retail corridors that died in SF moved south. Van Ness Avenue was called Auto Row, now largely devoid of car dealerships while an Auto Row was established in South SF, a city in San Mateo County to the south. A new Mercedes dealership just opened in a South SF neighborhood far from the Serramonte Auto Row, with many hundreds of Mercedes vehicles on display. Lot of retail activity in SSF, formerly in old SF. Up and down the Peninsula to Santa Clara.
SF is losing a lot of retail, not quite dead but getting there. Part of the reasons are the homeless and drug addicts sprawled around town, other reasons include the bad political climate and criminal activity.
I hope they’re not retrograde enough to have Boys’ and Girls’ Toys sections. The Kali government says you can’t do that.
I don’t think I’ve seen a ‘boys’ or ‘girls’ toy section in a store in a very long time. How are they going to regulate this, if stores just have signs saying ‘Toys’?
Are they going to mandate that stores ‘mix-up’ the toys?
California is bonkers.
Well, they shoulda signed up for the “Commando Elite” & “Gorgonite” action figures... /s
The in person experience is outdated
Not for me if isn’t a store no sale hate on line hunting and you don’t see many items you have a interest in.
Maybe 50 years ago, I had a Johnny West and his horse Thunderbolt. Always smelled funny.
yep
They effed a really beautiful city...
Dang!
We must be old...
Unfortunately, younger folks don't listen. I didn't in regards to the stories from my parents about the 1920s etc.
My memories of SF in the 1950's sound bizarre to my grandkids. Playland at the Beach, with multiple roller coaster rides and carnival booths, a Fun House with Laughing Sally, big slides, a spinning platform, wobbly walkways and fun mirrors. You could shoot targets with real .22 bullets. The Emporium on Market Street (where just the rotunda was preserved for Bloomingdales in the SF Center Mall now closed), having huge animated Christmas displays in the storefront windows, and a playground on the roof with many rides.
Beautiful clean shopping on Mission Street with many upscale restaurants, stores and giant movie theaters. The Mission District criss-crossed with railroad lines and freight trains picking up goods from the many factories. Also, the railroad freight activity on the Embarcadero going in and out of various piers where ships were loading freight. Fisherman's Wharf actually being about the fishermen and their goods, with lots of seafood restaurants and no touristy crap stores. Golden Gate Park, where museums and the Japanese Tea Garden were free or almost free (some charged 25 cents, now you're lucky to pay under $40). Ringling Bros. marching circus animals up Geneva Avenue from the train yards to the Cow Palace for the Circus. And so on. Younger people have no idea what was lost.
Soon the manufacturers of the toys will close their doors because the economic bowl is swirling everything down the drain.
How old are you?!!!
LOL
I have all the same memories
Between a pandemic and a plandemic there’s one L of a difference.
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