Nordstrom has closed the doors of its downtown San Francisco store. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images

One of the flagship retailers in downtown San Francisco has called it quits. Nordstrom closed the doors on its five-story, 312,000-square-foot store Sunday for the last time ever, the latest retailer to capitulate to rising crime and lower foot traffic.

The news wasn’t a surprise. Nordstrom announced it planned to shut down the once-vibrant store in May.

“The dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past several years, impacting customer foot traffic to our stores and our ability to operate successfully,” Jamie Nordstrom, chief stores officer, wrote in a letter to employees at the time.

While Nordstrom was once one of the kings of downtown San Francisco shopping, its final days were anything but glorious. Displays were empty, and areas were sealed off.

The company also shut down its Nordstrom Rack on Market Street last month, walking away from the heart of the city.

Nordstrom joins a growing contingent of retailers abandoning the area. Office Depot, Old Navy, Saks Off 5th, and Anthropologie have shuttered their downtown locations, and a nearby Whole Foods has also left, citing safety concerns.

Nordstrom’s departure has extra ripple effects, though. Westfield, the mall where the closing store is located, announced it would be giving the property back to its lender. That mall has been a fixture on Market Street for over 20 years. Sales at the mall, named San Francisco Centre, came in at $298 million last year, compared with $455 million in 2019, Westfield said when announcing the decision. Foot traffic at the mall was down 42% in that same time period.

“A growing number of retailers and businesses are leaving the area due to the unsafe conditions for customers, retailers, and employees, coupled with the fact that these significant issues are preventing an economic recovery of the area,” the mall’s owner said at the time Nordstrom announced the closing.

San Francisco has been in the midst of what some call a “doom spiral,” with office buildings and businesses still empty in the post-pandemic landscape. Crime has reached levels high enough to prompt some downtown pharmacies to lock up shampoo, toothpaste, and other toiletries. And armed robbers recently hit a Gucci store in broad daylight.

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The iconic sign above the former Nordstrom store at the San Francisco Centre mall was removed by workers on Friday afternoon.

Nordstrom closed its behemoth store in the former Westfield mall on Aug. 27, almost four months after it would shutter both its Downtown San Francisco locations.

The gold lettering was in the process of being removed by workers on Friday afternoon when The Standard visited.

French real estate company Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, which co-owns the building with Brookfield Properties, announced in June it would give up control of the mall and planned to default on a multimillion-dollar loan for the space. The mall has since been renamed San Francisco Centre.

The iconic Nordstrom sign was removed from the San Francisco Centre mall on Friday. | Source: Joel Umanzor/The Standard

Mayor London Breed has floated the idea of demolishing the mall and turning the space into a soccer stadium.

San Francisco architect Mark Hogan also recently floated the left-field idea of turning the mall’s vacant department-store floors into a Legoland.

A rendering depicts how the Legoland in the San Francisco Centre might look. | Source: OpenScope Studio

“I feel terrible about it,” Michael Tsang said as he walked down Fifth Street, “seeing it leave because of all of the drugs and crime around here.”

Vito Ferrara, who has been living in San Francisco for nine years, said any business moving into the former location should be concerned about the environment surrounding the mall.

“I’ve seen people support themselves based on what they’ve been able to steal from this mall,” Ferrara said. “Anyone who moves into this spot will have to deal with that reality.”

Ferrara said crime at the location should be worrisome for anyone moving their business into the Nordstrom location.

When the Nordstrom at the former Westfield San Francisco Centre mall opened in the fall of 1988, thousands lined up to see the department store’s spiral escalators and retractable skylight, the champagne and caviar bar, the five-star spa and the live pianist.

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield did not respond to a request for comment.

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After 35 years in business at the same location, Nordstrom closed its flagship store in San Francisco, California Sunday.

The closure comes as crime, homelessness, and public drug use have been on the rise in the city’s downtown.

Nordstrom’s store was located in the Westfield San Francisco Centre on Market Street. It occupied 312,000 square feet spread over five floors since 1988. According to MSN, the company had announced the store would close last May due to declining sales. 

Social media influencer Ian Miles Cheong posted a video to Twitter showing the empty space that once housed Nordstrom.

“Nordstrom is leaving San Francisco for good,” he wrote. “Like many other retailers, it is no longer able to do business in the crime-ridden city.”

Nordstrom is leaving San Francisco for good. Like many other retailers, it is no longer able to do business in the crime-ridden city. pic.twitter.com/IMsgrp0Ihz

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 28, 2023

“It’s definitely partially due to the crime in the area. COVID-19 had a big impact,” a Nordstrom employee told KGO-TV.

Rising crime rates have been a problem in other cities too where gangs of thieves sometimes target stores in broad daylight with impunity.

Earlier this month, several people ransacked a Nordstrom store in the Topanga Mall near Los Angeles.  A video of the brazen daylight robbery was posted to Instagram. 

Warning: Foul Language Alert

Critics are blaming San Francisco’s leaders for the increase in crime that has led to several businesses leaving. Retailers who have announced plans to pull up stakes and leave the Golden Gate City, include Old Navy, Banana Republic, Crate & Barrel, AmazonGo, Saks Off Fifth, Anthropologie, and Office Depot, according to MSN. 

Meanwhile, Walgreens and other stores have locked up most of their products in displays due to the increase in shoplifting in the area. 

A downtown security guard told The New York Post he sees at least five thefts happen where he works every day. 

“I can’t use any force, so there’s nothing I can do,” the guard, who wanted to remain anonymous, said. “In my eight-hour shift, we catch at least 15 people coming in and stealing, and it’s worse on weekends. 

The National Retail Federation (NRF) said that in some cases, “rampant crime and the dangers coupled” have led to a decrease in foot traffic, according to Fox Business. 

“It should come as no surprise that these factors can have a negative impact on businesses and can contribute to the decision to close a specific store location,” the NRF said in a May blog post. “Several national brands recently closed locations in the San Francisco area, with many saying that retail crime was a factor.” 

“I will say this: We have some serious issues to work on in San Francisco,” city Supervisor Matt Dorsey told KGO.

“San Francisco has always had ups and downs, but I’m going to tell you we always come back. And I’m not going to lose my optimism about my district or my city,” Dorsey said.

As Nordstrom was moving out of Market Street, furniture manufacturer IKEA was moving in, opening a brand new store on Market Street. 

“The arrival of @IKEA is great news for the City’s economic recovery that will bring local jobs and excitement to the Union Square area,” Mayor London Breed said in a tweet earlier this month. “We are thrilled to welcome IKEA to be part of San Francisco’s future.”

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Nordstrom Shoppers Caption: Nordstrom is closing both of its downtown San Francisco stores, citing the area’s changed “dynamics,” which has not recovered since the pandemic and is in the crime spotlight. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Image)

By Jordan Valinsky | CNN

Nordstrom is closing both stores in downtown San Francisco, citing the changed “dynamics” of the area, which has not recovered since the pandemic and has been in the crime spotlight.

The two locations are a 312,000-square-foot, five-story Nordstrom department store in the Westfield Shopping Center and a Rack discount store across the street on Market Street. Both locations will close in the summer, with the upscale department store chain telling employees in a memo that it is phasing out the stores’ leases.

RELATED: What’s Really Up With San Francisco’s Crime?

“Decisions like these are never easy, and this one was particularly difficult,” Jamie Nordstrom, Nordstrom’s chief stores officer, wrote in a memo obtained by CNN. “But as many of you are aware, the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past few years, impacting the flow of customers into our stores and our ability to operate successfully.”

A spokesman for the mall told CNN affiliate KGO-TV that Nordstrom’s closure “underscores the deteriorating situation in downtown San Francisco.”

“A growing number of retailers and businesses are fleeing the area due to the unsafe conditions for customers, retailers and employees, and the fact that these significant issues are preventing the area from recovering economically,” the mall said.

Nordstrom’s exit dealt another blow to San Francisco, as several well-known chains in the city have closed. A few weeks ago, a Whole Foods location that opened just a year ago announced it was temporarily closing for safety reasons. San Francisco Standard, an independent news website, has tracked 20 major store closures since 2020, including Anthropologie, Office Depot and CB2.

Incidents of theft in San Francisco have drawn national attention, despite a general decline in crime over the past six years.

Property crimes in San Francisco have garnered national attention through several attention-grabbing videos of thieves in action. Though still well below 2017 levels, the city saw a 23% increase in property crime between 2020 and 2022, with an increase in burglaries and theft leading the way, according to the San Francisco Police Department.

Meanwhile, violent crime statistics in San Francisco have remained relatively stable in recent years. Preliminary police data reports 12 homicides in San Francisco this year, up 20% from the same period last year. Overall, there were 56 homicides in San Francisco in 2022, which is the same number of homicides the city recorded in 2021.

In addition to crime, there are several other reasons that may have contributed to the closure of Nordstrom’s locations. First, post-pandemic remote work has led to a drop in foot traffic in major U.S. downtown areas, including San Francisco. Malls are also gaining popularity among shoppers as they increasingly shift their engagement online.

Nordstrom, too, has been struggling with its own problems and recently announced the closure of its Canadian stores. The company is also focusing its efforts on the discount rack unit and recently unveiled a rebrand to attract new buyers.

The CNN Wire & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery company. All rights reserved.

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new York
CNN
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Nordstrom is closing both stores in downtown San Francisco, citing the changed “dynamics” of the area, which has not recovered since the pandemic and has been in the crime spotlight.

The two locations are a 312,000-square-foot, five-story Nordstrom department store at Westfield Mall and a Rack discount store across the street on Market Street. Both locations will close over the summer, with the upscale department store chain telling employees in a memo that they will rent The leases of the shops are expiring.

“Decisions like these are never easy, and this one was particularly difficult,” Jamie Nordstrom, Nordstrom’s chief stores officer, wrote in a memo obtained by CNN. “But as many of you are aware, the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past few years, impacting the flow of customers into our stores and our ability to operate successfully.”

A spokesman for the mall told CNN affiliate KGO-TV that Nordstrom’s closure “underscores the deteriorating situation in downtown San Francisco.”

“A growing number of retailers and businesses are fleeing the area due to the unsafe conditions for customers, retailers and employees, and the fact that these significant issues are preventing the area from recovering economically,” the mall said.

Nordstrom’s exit dealt another blow to San Francisco, as several well-known chains in the city have closed. A few weeks ago, a Whole Foods location that opened just a year ago announced it was temporarily closing for safety reasons. San Francisco Standard, an independent news website, has tracked 20 major store closures since 2020, including Anthropologie, Office Depot and CB2.

Incidents of theft in San Francisco have drawn national attention, despite a general decline in crime over the past six years.

Property crimes in San Francisco have garnered national attention through several attention-grabbing videos of thieves in action. Though still well below 2017 levels, the city saw a 23% increase in property crime between 2020 and 2022, with an increase in burglaries and theft leading the way, according to the San Francisco Police Department.

Meanwhile, violent crime statistics in San Francisco have remained relatively stable in recent years. Preliminary police data reports 12 homicides in San Francisco this year, a 20% increase from the same period last year. Overall, there were 56 homicides in San Francisco in 2022, which is the same number of homicides the city recorded in 2021.

In addition to crime, there are several other reasons that may have contributed to the closure of Nordstrom’s locations. First, post-pandemic remote work has led to a drop in foot traffic in major U.S. downtown areas, including San Francisco. Malls are also gaining popularity among shoppers as they increasingly shift their engagement online.

Nordstrom (JWN) has also struggled with its own difficulties and recently announced the closure of its Canadian stores. The company is also focusing its efforts on the discount rack unit and recently unveiled a rebrand to attract new buyers.

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It was October 1988 in San Francisco. The Nordstrom Building opened at Fifth Street and Market Street, and San Francisco was very skeptical about its chances of success.

Among them were the owners of the shop.

“Who says we’re confident?” Co-Chairman Jim Nordstrom told The Chronicle on the eve of the store’s opening day. “We’re not that confident.”

The SF Nordstrom — which spanned 336,000 square feet across four floors of the Westfield San Francisco Center — was an incredibly dangerous business venture, but it had lasting repercussions.

Huge sales in the first year encouraged other projects, from car parks to museums to the Metreon. An area once considered the city’s Skid Row and warehouse district suddenly became rich with opportunity as the city center shifted south of Market Street. Nordstrom left so Salesforce Tower, East Cut, and China Basin could run.

When Nordstrom announced it would be closing its Westfield store and a Nordstrom Rack location across the street this summer, it was flagged as another symbol of failure in the city and the latest major loss for downtown San Francisco. This analysis is not entirely wrong. Indeed, the Westfield San Francisco Center has plunged into uncertainty and possible chaos. (I’ve never been happier that I don’t own a Foot Locker franchise there.)

And yet, from 30,000 feet up — with the help of The Chronicle archives — it’s hard to see Nordstrom’s tenure as anything but a savage success.

Dec 8, 1970: The Emporium on Market Street was a popular place for working class people in San Francisco.

Arthur Frisch/The Chronicle

To appreciate Nordstrom’s success, we need to talk about what used to be there.

This corner of Fifth and Market was once home to a large JCPenney and a much larger Emporium retail store. It was the shopping district for the poor, with Market Street acting as a sort of invisible line between classes – the social crowd to the north frequented Union Square while the working class shopped at “The Big E” (as the Emporium was known). then went down the street to a burger at Foster’s Diner.

My grandparents, Mexican immigrants, were in the latter group. My grandfather Ray Leal bought his first suit at The Big E in 1928 for $14, my mom tells me. He later wore Penney’s work clothes to his union welding job. Immediately south of these businesses, including the grounds of SFMOMA and Moscone Center, was urban squalor. Salesforce founder Marc Benioff’s grandfather, a supervisor in San Francisco who worked with transit and helping the homeless, commissioned a documentary about the poor conditions there.

So in the 1980s, when Nordstrom – an upscale department store! – in Union Square for a building on the wrong side of the market, it was considered madness. The Chronicle’s architecture critic at the time said the project could send wealthy buyers into “a war zone” and the paper suggested it was unsafe as “the wolves” come out of the tenderloin at night. It was a “filthy crossroads” and “home to shrieking preachers, beggars and sack ladies.”

On the other hand, progressives, including the ACLU, feared the area would turn into a second Union Square, driving the buskers, performers, chess players and unlucky ones away.

Oct. 7, 1988: The Nordstrom department store on Market Street in San Francisco opens to the public for the first time.Frederic Larson/The Chronicle

The Nordstrom owners have taken a Billy Beane/”Moneyball” analytical approach to the project to their credit.

BART and Muni Metro by the 1970s had cemented the city’s backbone on Market Street, which had much more room to expand and support larger crowds than Union Square, which was plagued by the congested cable cars and the 38 Geary bus route was served. Reportedly, 300,000 people—roughly the population of Sacramento in 1988—passed through the intersection of Fifth and Market each day.

The intersection was also more highway accessible. And as Jim Nordstrom pointed out, there were more hotel rooms within a three-block radius of downtown (or Center) than in all of Washington state.

“The San Francisco Center is … a symptom,” said Matt Orvick, the mall’s general manager. “It’s sort of part of an attempt to open up the city’s upscale shopping district and move it south.”

Oct. 7, 1988: The Nordstrom department store on Market Street in San Francisco opens to the public for the first time.Frederic Larson/The Chronicle

Skepticism in San Francisco had never vanished faster than on opening day at the Nordstrom.

Thousands queued outside the store when it opened at 9:30 a.m., and any hasty predictions of the sinking were immediately erased.

Critics and some Nordstrom executives had questioned the store’s design, which used curved escalators (and a few express elevators) to slowly filter the crowds toward Nordstrom’s merchandise on the top three floors. It broke all retail rules for easy access and impulse buying.

But the San Franciscans embraced the layout like ants serving their queen. Photos from day one show delighted shoppers moving upstairs and queuing for everything, including acquiring the store’s credit card.

“By midday, 60,000 shoppers had come to browse and shop, making the escalator line about as long as that for the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland,” wrote San Francisco Examiner columnist Rob Morse the next day. “It was a wild scene of mass consumerism. As a friend of mine said, Nordstrom isn’t a business, it’s a cult.”

The mall hired 18 valet attendants, but that wasn’t enough. The upscale store, complete with a champagne bar, spa, fireplace and piano player, had sales of $2 million on day one. It had what Nordstrom officials later called “without a doubt…our strongest opening in Nordstrom history.”

Oct. 7, 1988: The Nordstrom department store on Market Street in San Francisco opens to the public for the first time.Frederic Larson/The Chronicle

I returned to San Francisco in 1999 after 11 years on the Central Coast and Hollywood to discover that some of the largest post-Nordstrom dominoes were falling south of Market.

The Metreon and the Old Navy Flagship Store (with sandwiches) were completed that year, and city leaders had moved an old Playland-at-the-Beach carousel to Yerba Buena Gardens. Opened in 1996 on Howard and Fourth Streets, SFMOMA was another upscale hit on Market’s “bad side”. Next up was the Contemporary Jewish Museum on Mission Street.

Perhaps more importantly, the “San Francisco-ness” of this block of Market Street has remained, with authentic characters including the preachers, the guy who puts your name on a grain of rice, kids selling rap CDs, and a few the same street artists were there in the 1980s.

The store in 2023 remains the only Nordstrom in the Bay Area — maybe in the entire world? — where you can step outside and buy a bacon-wrapped hot dog within half a block. I think that’s a very good thing; a situation that in 1988 would have been considered an almost impossible best-case scenario to achieve.

What’s next for the San Francisco Center?

Maybe it’ll bounce back with a new anchor. Maybe after Big E and Nordstrom there’s a third act that we’re not even thinking about. (See Ferry Building, Pier 39, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, and a dozen other San Francisco institutions pronounced dead before dramatic rebirths with much hand-wringing.)

Or maybe it is indeed doomed, with more retail theft, violence, and fleeing retail chains.

But the problem with taking all good things that come to an end as a sign of the apocalypse is not knowing the bigger picture. Nordstrom brought incredible momentum to the South of Market. After it’s gone, we’ll continue to benefit from museum visits, bike trails, carousel rides, Giants games, jazz at Yerba Buena Gardens, and IMAX movies at the Metreon.

The Chronicle wrote in 1988: “(Nordstrom) is being hailed as either the sharpest business decision since the marketing of sliced ​​bread or the worst commercial blunder since Titanic’s maiden voyage.”

There was and is no iceberg on Fifth Street and Market Street. Just a complicated corner where Nordstrom thrived for 35 years — and made this town better over time.

Reach Peter Hartlaub: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @PeterHartlaub

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In one of the most surprising developments in San Francisco’s post-pandemic retail apocalypse, Nordstrom now says it will close its massive, 312,000-square-foot department store at Westfield San Francisco Center, which has been open since 1988. The company also says it will be closing its 45,000-square-foot outlet store Nordstrom Rack, which is less than a block away on Market Street. The Seattle-based company says Nordstrom Rack will close on July 1 and the Westfield Mall store will close about a month later.

The leases at both locations are about to expire. Options to extend the leases were available, but Nordstrom apparently turned them down because there simply aren’t enough buyers, thanks to a shift in shopping behavior since the pandemic and concerns about petty crime. “Decisions like this are never easy, and this one was particularly difficult, but as many of you know, the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past few years, affecting the flow of customers into our stores and on affecting our ability to operate successfully,” said the company’s Chief Stores Officer, Jamie Nordstrom, in a statement to affected workers obtained by the SF Business Times.

A Westfield spokesman said the closure shows the City of San Francisco’s inaction on the rising number of shoplifting and other blatant crimes along Market Street. “We have called on the city to find solutions to key issues and a lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity. The current environment is not sustainable for the community or businesses and we hope the city will implement the changes that are so much needed. ‘ the Westfield spokesman told the SF Business Times.

The future of the Westfield San Francisco Center is also uncertain. Its owner, who is also Europe’s largest mall operator, says it wants to exit the US and will sell most of the American malls it operates by the end of the year, the Wall Street Journal reported in April.

Nordstrom will shift its focus to its other 16 stores in the Bay Area. News of the closure comes just days after news that Sak’s Off Fifth, which is located next to the Nordstrom Rack on Market Street, will also close. SFist reported on Monday that Ross Dress For Less will be taking over the Sak’s space. Ross already has a massive location a block away at Market and 4th, and it’s unclear if it’ll be moving its current store or adding a different location altogether.

Sak’s Off 5th on Market Street. | Photo credit: Google Maps

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The retail sector in downtown San Francisco has taken another blow with Nordstrom’s decision to close two stores.

The Seattle-based retailer will close its 312,000-square-foot department store at the Westfield San Francisco Center at 865 Market Street in August due to reduced foot traffic. The San Francisco Business Times reported.

On July 1, Nordstrom will also close its 45,500-square-foot Nordstrom Rack across the street at 901 Market Street, South of Market.

The move out of both Nordstrom stores at the end of their current leases marks the end of a 35-year presence in downtown San Francisco.

“Decisions like these are never easy, and this one was particularly difficult,” Jamie Nordstrom, the company’s chief stores officer, wrote in a message to affected employees. “But as many of you know, the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past few years, affecting the footfall in our stores and our ability to operate successfully.”

The company believes it can better serve customers by focusing on e-commerce sales and its other 16 Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack stores in the Bay Area.

Nordstrom opened its Westfield mall in 1988 and since 2014 has operated the 901 Market Store, owned by Los Angeles-based Hudson Pacific Properties.

An unidentified spokesman for Westfield mall and its owner, Paris-based Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, told the Business Times in a statement that Nordstrom’s upcoming closure “underscores the deteriorating situation in downtown San Francisco.”

“We have urged the city to find solutions to key issues and lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity,” the spokesman said. “The current environment is unsustainable for either the community or business, and we hope the city will implement the changes that are so desperately needed.”

The spokesman declined to comment further on specific criminal activity and the possibility that Westfield might seek a buyer for the stricken mall. Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has publicly stated that it intends to do so sell most of its US properties this year.

But market conditions and the San Francisco mall’s declining performance, whose metrics are often excluded from portfolio earnings statistics, make it a tough sell, according to the Business Times.

The Nordstrom Rack store is nearing the end of its original 10-year lease at 901 Market Street and is waiving the option for up to four consecutive five-year renewals.

Exercise of either option would have increased the incremental scaling rent from its current annual rate of approximately $3.1 million per year to approximately $3.4 million per year, according to a copy of the original lease.

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The Nordstrom closures follow a decision by Whole Foods earlier this month to close its flagship grocery store at 1177 Market Street. citing the deteriorating road conditions. The 65,000 square meter market was open for 12 months.

They also follow the news for the past week Office Depot will be leaving its store at 33 Third Street to the south of the market and Anthropologie plans to close stores at 880 Market Street in Union Square.

– Dana Bartholomew

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“Walnut Creek Police investigators are in the process of reviewing surveillance footage to attempt to identify other suspects responsible for this brazen act,” the department said.

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The spectacle Saturday night was one of several incidents of looting and shoplifting reported at high-end retail stores around the Bay Area over the weekend.

On Friday night, thieves broke into at least 10 stores, including a Louis Vuitton in San Francisco’s Union Square. And on Sunday night, officers in Hayward, about a 30-minute drive from San Francisco, were investigating after a group of smash-and-grab burglars destroyed glass cabinets and stole merchandise from a mall jewelry store.

Police arrest suspects after a San Francisco Louis Vuitton store was robbed during a 10 store looting spree in the area on Nov. 19. (@Yealenne via Storyful)

“These crimes are happening around the Bay and across the country,” San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin tweeted Saturday. “I stand in partnership with our local, regional, state, and federal partners as we work together to do whatever it takes to keep you safe.”

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Incidents of retail theft and organized crime have marred San Francisco’s image as of late. Pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS have discussed blatant acts of shoplifting and shuttered several locations as a result. In September, city officials announced new tactics for fighting the crime wave, including adding more foot patrols and additional investigators to the police department’s organized retail crime unit.

This weekend’s crime spree began Friday night around 8 pm as San Francisco police responded to reports of looting and burglary around Union Square, a popular shopping district. Videos circulating on social media show looters ransacking a Louis Vuitton store after shattering the windows. One person can be seen climbing a shelving display to grab a handbag at the top, while another dragged a large piece of luggage outside. Yet another ran from the store with an armful of shoes and clothing.

ABC7 News reported that over $1 million in merchandise was stolen from Union Square stores.

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One video shows police smashing the windows of a Mustang outside the store and forcibly removing a person from the vehicle. At a news conference Saturday, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said the officers “were confronting an armed individual” inside the Mustang.

As of Saturday, police had arrested eight people and seized two vehicles thought to be connected to the crimes, including the Mustang, Scott said.

“I think the people that tried to do this and the people that did do this, it was concerted,” he said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that this wasn’t unplanned.”

The following evening, Nordstrom employees and shoppers in Walnut Creek were ambushed by approximately 80 thieves who entered the store in unison just before 9 pm, police said.

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Jodi Hernandez, a reporter with NBC Bay Area, was outside the store and recorded footage of what she dubbed the “flash mob robbery.” Hernandez said about 25 cars blocked the street in front of Nordstrom before the occupants stormed inside and then returned to the vehicles with stolen merchandise.

#Breaking About 25 cars just blocked the street and rushed into the Walnut Creek Nordstrom making off with goods before getting in cars snd speeding away. At least two people arrested at gunpoint. pic.twitter.com/AG3R94M9L3

— Jodi Hernandez (@JodiHernandezTV) November 21, 2021

Three people were arrested in connection with the thefts Saturday night, according to police: 30-year-old Dana Dawson and 32-year-old Joshua Underwood of San Francisco, and 18-year-old Rodney Robinson of Oakland. The Walnut Creek Police Department did not respond to an email from The Washington Post late Sunday requesting an update on its investigation.

On Sunday, however, the department cautioned residents that the same group of thieves might be planning another heist that evening.

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“This has not been confirmed, but out of an abundance of caution, we’re alerting businesses and residents to be prepared,” police tweeted. “The PD is calling out add’l officers and reserves, and some stores may consider closing early or taking other precautions. There is no specific time or target known right now.”

On Sunday night, at the Southland Mall in Hayward, a group of thieves carrying hammers smashed glass cases and stole jewelry from Sam’s Jewelers, local media reported.

A large mob robbed Sam’s Jewelers inside Southland Mall, Hayward. PD said they received calls at 5:25 pm today. Witnesses told me 1st wave of robbers involved about 30-40 kids. A 2nd wave with fewer robbers returned to clean it up. Story tonight 11 on Ch 5 @KPIXtv pic.twitter.com/1kXj5N4UT2

— Da Lin (@DaKPIX) November 22, 2021

Lt. Mark Ormsby of the Hayward Police Department told the San Francisco Chronicle that investigators do not yet have enough information to tie the incident to the other crimes in the Bay Area.

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Jim Dudley, a retired San Francisco Police officer who now teaches criminal justice at San Francisco State University, said the burglaries might be the result of a “perfect storm” created by corporations and policymakers in California, where many retailers have “no chase” policies Regarding shoplifters and where at least $950 of merchandise must be stolen for state prosecutors to press felony charges.

The weekend’s looting and shoplifting incidents “seem to be coordinated, with tools, lookouts, vehicles for getaway and swarming tactics used by criminals with intent to plunder,” Dudley told the Chronicle.

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Nordstrom Rack, a popular spot with bargain hunters, will close its location in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood on October 1, the retailer said.

The 42,000-square-foot store, selling $ 200 of jeans for $ 100, opened in 2001 in a shopping mall at 555 Ninth St. owned by the Acadia Realty Trust.

The retailer’s downtown Nordstrom Rack on Market Street and neighboring Nordstrom on Westfield Mall will remain open.

“Our market strategy allows us to examine how we are best positioned to meet our customers’ needs in a market rather than looking at individual deals,” a spokesman for the Seattle-based company said in a statement. “This approach means that we can combine our digital and physical assets to offer our customers greater product choice, improved delivery speeds and greater convenience. We believe that we can best serve our customers in this market by focusing on our nearby Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack locations, “as well as online.”

While Nordstrom closed 16 of its full-line stores across the country last year in response to the COVID pandemic, the company said it was unusual to close Nordstrom Rack stores that offer discounts of up to 70% on Nordstrom prices on clothing and shoes for men and women.

“Closing rack stores is not something we do often,” a spokesman wrote in an email. “We’ve only closed nine since 1995, and over the same period we opened 245.”

Nordstrom said it will try to move employees from the SoMa site into new roles within the company.

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