The store, which has been at Union Square since 1947, will remain open until Macy’s can find a buyer for the property. The closing will cost about 500 employees their jobs.The iconic Union Square store will be one of about 150 stores Macy’s plans to close over the next three years, including 50 by the end of this year.
The company has cited flagging sales as the reason behind the move. San Francisco’s downtown retailers have also been plagued by recent surges in theft and property crime. About half the stores around Union Square have closed since 2019, according to a study by the San Francisco Standard.
Representatives for Macy’s could not be reached for comment on the closure of the downtown San Francisco store.The planned closure of Macy’s is just the latest in a series of departures by major retailers from downtown San Francisco since the end of the COVID epidemic.
More than 40 have closed their stores in the city, including Saks Off Fifth, Nordstrom, Old Navy, Adidas and Whole Foods. The city has about 18 million square feet of vacant office space.The city’s biggest mall, San Francisco Center – which was known until last fall as Westfield – has also seen an exodus of retailers.
