RIP Franchises of our youths

[Drunk Monk]

Macy’s to close historic Union Square store

The Macy's Union Square location will close its doors, according to Supervisor Aaron Peskin. | Camille Cohen/The Standard
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By Kevin V. Nguyen, David Sjostedt, George Kelly, and Garrett LeahyUpdated Feb. 27, 2024 • 12:02pmPublished Feb. 27, 2024 • 10:19am
Macy's will close its flagship Union Square store, according to Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who said the company directly informed him Tuesday morning of its plans. 
The move comes after the retail giant announced it will close 150 stores, about 30% of its total locations, over the next three years—including 50 by year-end—due to flagging sales. 
Peskin said the historic store, which opened in 1947, will remain open until Macy's finds a buyer for the property it owns. The closure will affect about 400 jobs, according to a local Macy's workers' union.
"We are disappointed to hear about the closure of the historically significant store in Union Square," said United Food and Commercial Workers International Union President John Frahm. "We will do everything we can to ensure that the members of UFCW transition into good jobs."
During the holiday shopping season in 2022, all of the store's full-time retail employees—which include salespeople, cashiers and customer service representatives—all walked out of their jobs to strike against layoffs and cuts to benefits. 
"The situation is fluid, and there is no getting around the fact that this announcement hurts," said Marisa Rodriguez, CEO of the Union Square Alliance. "I believe that we should work toward a solution that allows Macy’s to keep this iconic store open."
Representatives from Macy's did not respond to a request for comment. Last month, it also eliminated 13% of its corporate staff. 
“We are making the necessary moves to reinvigorate relationships with our customers through improved shopping experiences, relevant assortments and compelling value,” said Macy’s CEO Tony Spring in a statement earlier this month.
The company also owns Bloomingdale's at the nearby San Francisco Centre mall, which has a lease that runs until 2046. 
Last year, the departure of Nordstrom from the shopping center set off another wave of mass exits from downtown San Francisco. Before that, a Whole Foods store closed a year after opening its doors on Eighth and Market streets.
Macy’s shopper Joe Martinez said he was saddened by the department store's closure, saying it was the latest in a series of shops that have closed in San Francisco.
When asked about the department store's closure, Macy’s shopper Joe Martinez said, "It sucks, man. We've lost a lot of good stores lately." | Source: Garrett Leahy/The Standard

“It sucks, man,” said Martinez, who moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles roughly one year ago. “We’ve lost a lot of good stores lately, like the Old Navy.”
Downtown San Francisco's central shopping district has struggled with viral robbery incidents and closures of prominent stores in recent years amid globally changing consumer habits accelerated by the pandemic.
'A lot of work to do'
State Sen. Scott Wiener said there is "a lot of work to do" in order to revitalize the city's downtown. 
“There will be an automatic narrative that this closure has something to do with San Francisco or with crime,” Wiener said. “But this is a mass closure. ... We need to aggressively and creatively reimagine the future of downtown SF, including Union Square.”
"It’s hard to think of Macy’s not being part of our city anymore," Mayor London Breed said in a statement. "Change is happening in San Francisco. This is why it’s so important we continue to make law changes at local and state levels, and that we reform our tax laws to recruit and retain businesses."

One of my good buddies from the Warfield/Fillmore crew worked there. He was the union shop steward for a spell.

[King Bob]

Haven't been to any of their stores in years; the one down here has been a dump for a long time. Big racks of unsorted clothes all over the place because they cut all the early morning recovery jobs. Classic big company move - eliminate the low-end jobs that actually do useful work, but not the redundant managers. (Even 40 years ago when I worked holidays there I could tell that there was too much management.) They will probably follow Emporium into oblivion.

We used to go to Macy's occasionally for housewares, but Target got better at that, although now Target pretty much sucks too. I still like Costco; I'm going to start buying underwear there since Target locks it up now, and you have to wait forever for anything locked up.

I'm starting to think that Wall Street is ruining pretty much everything by making businesses focus on short term stock price goals and completely ignoring customers and what they might actually want - like quality products and no hassles.

[Drunk Monk]

I still like Costco; I'm going to start buying underwear there since Target locks it up now, and you have to wait forever for anything locked up.

Underwear is locked up for good reason. Think about it. You really don't want to buy underwear that's been exposed to the general public on a daily basis. 

Lock it up!

[King Bob]

You do have a point there.

[Greg]

The underwear was born free. It has a right to live free.

[Drunk Monk]

Slightly OT

Julie Haener is retiring. Sure, it's FOX but 30 years ago, it wasn't so polemic.

I met her once, at the now demolished Vallco Mall, decades ago. I can't remember why she was there - it was some sort of promotional thing. Nevertheless, I got to chat with her and thank her for bringing me my news back in the day.

[Drunk Monk]

SF Denny's that was once California's most expensive has closed
By Madeline Wells,Senior Food ReporterAug 12, 2024

The Denny’s at 816 Mission St., San Francisco, has permanently closed. The restaurant had a “closed” sign in the window and the Denny’s sign was painted over on Aug. 12, 2024.
Alex Simon/SFGATE
The last remaining Denny’s in San Francisco has shuttered after nearly 25 years. The 24-hour diner chain’s 816 Mission St. location closed Aug. 1, franchise owner Chris Haque told SFGATE. As of Aug. 12, the Denny’s sign has been painted over.
“We’re the only store left, and we operated until the last day that we could,” Haque said. “The cost of doing business is tremendous. There’s vandalism, and people come and eat and walk away, and there’s no one to stop them.”
Haque claimed that dining and dashing was a big issue at the Denny’s near Union Square, which he said cut into the restaurant’s profit margins. He also pointed to the lack of conventions in San Francisco over the past few years, which the restaurant typically depended on for business. Haque used to be the franchise owner of a Denny’s location in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf as well, which closed in 2019, and still runs a Denny’s in Tacoma, Washington.
“It’s a beautiful city — we love it, we have been there so many years,” Haque said of San Francisco. “But I think [city officials] should make it more business-friendly.”
In December 2022, SFGATE food reporter Nico Madrigal-Yankowski found that the Mission Street location was the most expensive Denny’s in all of California, although he wasn’t disappointed by his breakfast there: “I didn’t quite find God after eating at the most expensive Denny’s in the state, but it was a scrumptious and completely satisfying meal,” he wrote. “And even though this order cost about $20, there was a lot of food.”
The Oakland Denny’s near the Hegenberger Road corridor also closed in January after 54 years, citing the “safety and well-being” of Denny’s customers and employees amid concerns over crime in the area. Denny’s still has many Bay Area locations remaining in the South Bay, East Bay and North Bay.

I'm not sure I was ever even at this Denny's.

[Drunk Monk]

Last full-size Kmart in US to close
Store that is closing in Bridgehampton, New York, leaves just a Florida location remaining

 By Greg Norman 

The last full-size Kmart store in the continental United States is set to close in October, leaving only one downsized location remaining, reports say. 
The department store chain, which once operated around 2,300 locations in the early 1990s, will shutter the full-size store in Bridgehampton, New York, on Oct. 20, Newsday is reporting, citing an employee there. 
That means a smaller Kmart store in Miami will become the last one remaining in the U.S. Kmart, which is now owned by Transformco, also has three stores in the U.S. Virgin Islands. 
Transformco did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment from FOX Business, but a spokesperson for Kimco Realty Corp. – which owns the shopping centers where both Kmarts are located in New York and Florida – told Newsday that the Bridgehampton store will indeed be closing. 


This Kmart location in Bridgehampton, New York, is set to close in October 2024, reports say. (Google Maps)
The Kmart location in Bridgehampton has been open for 25 years, according to Newsday. 
Transformco says on its website that the first Kmart discount department store opened in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan. 
The company filed for bankruptcy in 2002 before merging with Sears years later, then filed for bankruptcy again in 2018. 
The other remaining Kmart location in the continental U.S. is at Kendale Lakes Plaza in Miami. 


Customers exit the Miami, Florida Big Kmart store in January 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images / Getty Images)
The Miami Herald reports that the Kmart store there leased out nearly all of its former space to home goods store At Home. That Kmart location has now been reduced to what used to be the garden department of the original store. 

A Kimco Realty Corp. leasing representative told the newspaper that Kmart has a "long-term lease" at the Kendale Lakes location. 

Didn't even notice they were gone, but now that you mention it, I haven't seen one in quite a while...

[Greg]

I thought they shuttered quite some time ago. They always had the best popcorn.....

[thatguy]

Here's some music to play it out



--tg

[King Bob]

I used to like to get an Icee at Kmart.

[Greg]

Also good.

[Drunk Monk]

They always had the best popcorn.....

No match to Garrett’s cheese corn. Not even in the ballpark.

[Greg]

Hard to argue with 10cents for a giant bag.

[King Bob]

And so extremely and delightfully salty. I probably couldn't handle that anymore.