Macy’s in Downtown San Francisco is Closing…and it Was Totally Predictable

Photo of Macy’s in Union Square in San Francisco by Sharon Mollerus via Flickr

It was announced on Tuesday morning that Macy’s would be closing 150 “underproductive” stores nationwide. Shortly afterwards the news broke that the Macy’s in downtown San Francisco would be one of the casualties.

We all know that there’s going to be a lot of public handwringing and teeth gnashing about this on the internet, with people blaming…well everyone. Local conservative groups will be fundraising off the back of this saying, “See Progressives took away your Macy’s!” and Fox News will somehow blame San Francisco for all 150 store closures.

The reality we’re dealing with though, is that downtown San Francisco was built for 1907, not 2024. What’s happening there would’ve happened eventually anyways, it’s just that the pandemic sped things up. Commerce has fundamentally changed.

Besides the fact that most people shop at home in their underwear, consumers no longer need to travel from other parts of the Bay Area to find their favorite stores. You can find the same shops in Walnut Creek and Palo Alto that you can find in Union Square.

Don’t get me wrong, this will undoubtedly be a blow to downtown San Francisco, especially in its view of itself. Macy’s has been an anchor in Union Square since 1947, and generations of Bay Area peeps have foundational memories of visiting during the holidays to see the magnificent displays. And 400,000 square feet of commercial space is an incredibly difficult hole to fill. But that’s precisely why Macy’s, and other places like it, are closing. Even was far back as 2014 it was predicted that 50% of malls in the US would be shuttered in the next 20 years. That was 10 years ago, so this prediction seems to be keeping pace. This version of doing business is just no longer sustainable.

What’s happening in downtown San Francisco fucking sucks, but I know we will get through it. This city has survived the AIDS epidemic, the Zodiac Killer, Jonestown, The Zebra Murders, Milk and Moscone’s assassinations, and bloody awful Reaganism. We will weather this tempest as well. To do so though, we have to be willing to accept that the future downtown will be a different one. Less reliant on corporate offices, and more embracing of housing. Let’s open art hubs and performance centers. Housing co-ops and weird third spaces where people don’t have to be consumers. We have so many talented and creative minds who can reimagine what all that empty space can be; we just need those in power to have the political will to make it happen.

So I will bid Macy’s a fond adieu while I look forward to whatever brilliant new version of downtown San Francisco rises up from this shitty moment we’re experiencing. I have faith in San Francisco, and I know that down deep, even most of you internet party poopers do too.