When Coco Republic opened in San Francisco last October, the Australian-based company proclaimed their excitement to open a store in Sydney, Australia’s sister city.
But in a prepared statement Thursday, it listed downtown San Francisco's challenges as their reason for getting out.
"Despite taking numerous precautions in and around their San Francisco store to protect customers and employees, Coco Republic has concluded that it is impossible to continue to keep the location open,” the statement read.
The city of San Francisco, and the business district there, have invested millions of dollars in police overtime, private security patrols, and neighborhood ambassadors to try to deal with issues like:
- Organized-group robberies that ransacked the shopping area in 2021
- Continued street robberies and other crimes
- The city's ongoing issues with homelessness and open-air drug use
Once the Coco Republic store on Stockton Street does close, every shop will have closed with the exception of the Nescafe store, which hasn't announced any plans of leaving.
According to figures from a University of Toronto study, San Francisco has had one of the worst downtown recoveries from the pandemic.
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Since 2020, at least two dozen retailers have closed their doors in the greater Union Square shopping district. Business and city leaders have been struggling to figure out how to respond to the mass exit.
Shoppers said they've noticed the vacant storefronts, but some say that's not something unique to San Francisco.
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“I noticed that. But I think it's because the people now is buying more online,” said Patricia Galindo.
She and Glen Snyder are visiting from Virginia.
“I've also noticed that in Richmond. I hate to say it, but I just think it's about the internet.
It's about being delivered tomorrow morning to your door. If someone knows exactly what you want, you don't have to try it on,” said Snyder.
Sarah Sellers works at a medical office near Union Square and said retailers have been scaling back since before the pandemic, and now, there's a different kind of foot traffic through the area.
“People who are down here, it's just way less busy. People who are down here are not here for shopping. They're not tourists,” she said. “There are people who work here and live here and it's just really scaled down.”
In an effort to deal with changes downtown, last week the city planning commission approved changes to the city code that would make it easier to convert empty office space to housing and make it easier for a variety of businesses to occupy large retail spaces around Union Square instead of only one big retailer.
