Macy’s Becomes Latest Retailer to Announce Departure from San Francisco’s Union Square

In an announcement earlier this week, Macy’s announced that they will be closing 150 stores nationwide, or roughly about 30% of their existing locations, including the iconic Union Square location in San Francisco.

According to Macy’s in a statement on Tuesday, they are focusing their resources by closing approximately 150 underproductive locations through 2026.

“The problems facing Macy’s are similar to what I first encountered at Bloomingdales — it’s going back to basics and balancing the art and science of retail,” said Macy’s CEO Tony Spring. “The stores that will be closed represent about a quarter of Macy’s square footage but account for about 10% of sales. Our threshold to keep a store open has become more stringent. In the past we may have continued to operate a store that was cash flow positive. Now the bar has been raised.”

On the surface, the Macy’s closures are just  another effect of the retail apocalypse, a drastic decline of the number of large and small retail stores since the Great Recession that was only further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many shoppers are choosing online options, focusing spending on areas outside of retail goods, and are looking for cheaper options because of inflation, amongst many other reasons.

But in San Francisco, the Macy’s Union Square location is sort of a different beast. The location being a department store dates back to 1929, and has a higher number of employees. Approximately 400 are to be impacted by the shutdown, with the UFCW Local 5 union expected to lose a lot of members as a result. While the building still needs to be sold and the store will likely make it through the rest of the year in San Francisco, it will eventually shutter by 2026.

“Macy’s has always meant a lot to the people of this city. It’s where families came to shop for the holidays,” said Mayor London Breed on Tuesday. “It’s where many people from my community got their first jobs, or even held jobs for decades. It’s hard to think of Macy’s not being part of our city anymore.”

My statement on Union Square Macy’s. pic.twitter.com/tBVIklWb8D

— London Breed (@LondonBreed) February 27, 2024

In a later statement, Breed denied that crime and shoplifting were factors in the decision to close the store down, saying that “Crime trends are going down. When I talked to folks at Macy’s, that was not mentioned in its factors to close because it was about its entire portfolio, it’s about the profitability and the changes in retail and how people are shopping.”

But, for anyone familiar with the crime situation in San Francisco, it’s obvious what the big reason behind the Macy’s closure is: shoplifting. Many outlets such as the San Francisco Standard have already had countless interviews with employees say that the large number of things stolen daily from the store are to blame. Many specifically point the finger at Breed, the lack of prosecution of shoplifters, and Prop 47, which greatly reduced penalties for stealing when the amount of things stolen was valued under $950. Add in other factors like a bogged down SFPD and a perfect storm brewed for Macy’s to leave, just like when Nordstrom and Saks left last year. And that’s just large-scale retail, as many big retailers like Walgreens and Target have been leaving for years, along with many boutique Union Square stores.

“We all knew what was coming,” expressed “Ellen”, a Macy’s worker to the Globe who wished to remain anonymous. “Things are just taken. When I first worked retail many years ago, we would have loss prevention on anybody who dared tried to steal anything. We’d hold them off from leaving or quietly follow them while the cops come and they arrest them. Many would scream or try to cause a scene, but those cuffs really were amazing.

“But what we have now in San Francisco? People just take [things] all the time because they can get away with it. My son works at a food store and management just tells them not to stop them on the way out. This isn’t right. In other parts of the country, it doesn’t matter if it is$1000 or $5, security will grab them by the arm. Even Los Angeles, security won’t just let people walk out. Yeah, they’ll only get a misdemeanor, but they won’t let them get away with it. Same thing when I visited Stockton. But here, you know, so several pairs of shoes are taken. No one is stopped. It’s not investigated. Every department has that problem.

“And they’re calling us an underproductive location. Yeah. Of course it is. Fewer people want to shop downtown now and many people who do come in steal. Everyone knows that’s the reason, but you know, having to save face. They want to blame it on shoppers for not shopping there enough instead of the whole stealing thing.”

More large retail closures are expected in San Francisco this year.